Outrage over CBE for RBS bank boss
A NEW Year honour for former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Ross McEwan was described as “inappropriate” yesterday as criticism of his role resurfaced.
He has been awarded a CBE for his “services to the financial sector” as he takes up a new role with the National Australia Bank.
But the award is sure to cause outrage among the raft of businesses that suffered under RBS’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG) and thousands of customers who have seen high street branches disappear.
While the GRG activities pre-dated McEwan’s arrival at the state-owned bank in 2013, it is his attempts to gloss over its actions that will lead many to question the award.
The unit often forced businesses to the wall – rather than helping them turn around their fortunes.
Author and broadcaster Ian Fraser, whose book Shredded: Inside RBS, the bank that broke Britain lifted the lid on the RBS banking scandal, said: “I am dismayed and I think this shows the Government is out of touch. Yes, Ross McEwan has done some good things in terms of financially turning RBS around.
“But I do think this honour is inappropriate.
“The Government seems to be ignoring his woeful handling of the Global Restructuring Group scandal which has involved attempts to suppress the truth, downplay the severity of what happened and minimise compensation pay-outs to victims.”
McEwan, 62, said he had “delivered the strategy” that he set out when taking over in 2013. Under his leadership the bank – 62 per cent Government-owned – closed hundreds of branches but became profitable for the first time since the 2008 £45billion Government bail-out.