Bank must earn trust and respect
The chairman of the Scottish National Investment Bank, Willie Watt, wants it to become a “trusted institution owned by the whole of Scotland”. That is a noble aspiration. However, trust must be earned particularly where bankers are concerned, given their recent history of bringing two great Scottish institutions to their knees.
The “£ 2 billion” headline sounds impressive but is over a decade and has been largely paid for by cuts to Scotland’s existing enterprise network.
Mr Watt hopes the new baby will be “a non- political institution” which seems optimistic when every other quango has gone in exactly the opposite direction. The first investment, in the technology firm Msquared, is exactly what Scottish Enterprise would have done in the past, without the benefit of a photo opportunity at Edinburgh Castle.
A former chairman of the old Highlands and Islands Devel
opment Board, Sir Andrew Gilchrist, described it as “a merchant bank with a social purpose”. It took risks and we live today with many of the benefits. On that basis, it won trust and affection.
As an MP in Ayrshire, most of
my dealings were with Enterprise Ayrshire, part of the Scottish Enterprise network which was a successful model, closer to communities than a purely national agency, until it was scrapped as soon as the Nationalists took over. Mr Watt should
expect to be judged by the same criteria. For now, it is far from obvious why existing agencies have been marginalised or whether Edinburgh bankers are best qualified to define social purpose or local need in the furthest corners of our land.