RBS chief could face MPs for ‘withholding information’
ROYAL BANK of Scotland boss Ross McEwan could again be hauled in front of MPs after being accused of misleading a parliamentary committee over a police investigation into former bank staff.
Mr McEwan is alleged to have “withheld information” from the influential Treasury Select Committee when he denied that he was aware of any criminal activity within the bank by its workers. But six months later
reported that Police Scotland were investigating criminal allegations in relations to a former employee of its RBS Restructuring unit. Mr McEwan has now defended his comments in a letter to Treasury Committee chairman Nicky Morgan, claiming the activities in question fell outside the period under discussion at the Committee’s January hearing, which related to the now-defunct Global Restructuring Group (GRG).
RBS’ Global Restructuring Group (GRG) has been accused of pushing firms towards failure in the hope of picking up assets on the cheap, but was left off the hook in a recent ruling by the regulator.
The criminal activity being probed by police is said to have taken place between 2014 and 2016. “We would entirely reject the suggestion that the Committee may have been in any way misled by the evidence that I gave during my appearance before you in January,” Mr McEwan said. But Ms Morgan said his explanation was “unconvincing”.
Anyone seen to be lying in evidence to a select committee could face imprisonment, but it has rarely been enforced.