Bank chief’s bid to keep his name out of £237m scandal

Inquiry demand after governor’s appeal to judge

THE governor of the Bank of England faced calls for a full inquiry last night after he tried to remove his name from a damning report into a £237million savings scandal.

Andrew Bailey, who ran the Financial Conduct Authority until March, was named and shamed in a major probe into the watchdog’s handling of the London Capital & Finance disaster.

The scandal saw 11,600 investors, many of them elderly, persuaded to buy risky unregulated ‘minibonds’ and left out of pocket when the company collapsed.

This week’s report, led by former Court of Appeal Judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster, held Mr Bailey personally responsible for failings at the FCA.

It also revealed that the governor had tried to expunge his name from the long

‘They were asleep at the wheel’

awaited report, a suggestion which Dame Elizabeth branded a ‘disappointment’.

Now prominent MPs are calling for Mr Bailey to face a full inquiry.

Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, chairman of the all-party group on fair business banking, said: ‘ It’s outrageous that Andrew Bailey has tried to redact his name from this report. We have seen time and time again that the regulator is inactive and supine – and yet nothing appears to change. If he i s guilty of contributing to this mess, then a process needs to be gone through to hold him accountable.’

The report casts a cloud over Mr Bailey’s tenure at the FCA.

The watchdog is still investigating the implosion of investment manager Neil Woodford’s flagship fund, the Woodford Equity Income Fund, which collapsed last year under Mr Bailey’s watch. Consumer champion Justin Modray, of Candid Financial Advice, said: ‘It really appears Andrew Bailey and his FCA colleagues were asleep at the wheel during the LCF and other similar scandals.’

LCF tumbled into administration in January 2019 after collecting £237million from 11,600 investors.

It promised investors high returns and claimed that its products were only low risk.

In a historic moment for the Bank of England, Mr Bailey was forced into an embarrassing apology when the report was published on Thursday.