Former Scottish bank chief stripped of knighthood

LONDON / The former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, has had his knighthood stripped by the Queen over his role in the bank’s near-collapse in 2008, it was announced Tuesday.

There have been growing calls for Goodwin, nicknamed Fred the Shred, to lose the honour after the bank required a massive government bailout and had to shed thousands of jobs.

The total injection of taxpayers’ money into RBS so far amounts to the equivalent of about $71.5 billion.

A statement from the Cabinet Office, the government department that handles the honours system, said Goodwin had brought the system into “disrepute.”

“The knighthood conferred upon Fred Goodwin as a Knight Bachelor has been cancelled and annulled,” a statement said.

The decision was taken on the advice of the forfeiture committee, which said Goodwin had brought the honours system into disrepute.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the highly unusual move was the “right decision.”

A report by the Financial Services Authority, a financial watchdog, into what went wrong at RBS “made clear where the failures lay and who was responsible.”

Until now, only convicted criminals and people struck off by professional bodies have had knighthoods taken away.

Goodwin came to symbolize the financial crisis in Britain after he oversaw the disastrous multibillion-pound deal to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro at the height of the crisis in 2007, which led to RBS having to be bailed out.

The Queen awards honours for a wide range of achievements, either to public servants, sportsmen, top business figures or ordinary citizens who have served their community with distinction.

Goodwin received his knighthood in 2004 under the Labour government of Tony Blair for services to banking.

Unite, one of Britain’s largest unions, said it was a “token gesture,” but national officer David Fleming added that it was “one which will be well received by the thousands of workers who lost their jobs during his rule.”

RBS’S current chief executive, Stephen Hester, bowed to intense political pressure and on Sunday waived his annual bonus of 963,000 pounds in shares.

The reward sparked outrage among trade unions and the opposition Labour Party because RBS is still 82 per cent owned by the state.

David Moir, Reuters, File Britain said Tuesday it will cancel the knighthood of Fred Goodwin, former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, following his role in the bank’s failure during the credit crisis.