Outrage at fees bonanza for ex-GRG loans chief
After bombshell bank report, former boss raking in fortune
THE former boss of RBS’s notorious Global Restructuring Group has raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds in consultancy fees since leaving the taxpayer-backed bank.
Derek Sach left RBS in 2015 and has been advising private equity firm CVC on its investments.
He books his advice fees through a personal service company – and its accounts show it now has £323,430 in cash at the bank.
Sach was the mastermind behind the bank’s handling of small and medium firms within the GRG unit, from which few emerged.
A report into its activities by City regulators has found that instead of nursing firms back to health, RBS bankers focused on plundering them for fees.
Last night, Kevin Hollinrake, chair of the All-Party Parliamen- tary Group on Fair Business Banking, said: ‘Business people whose lives have been ruined by this man must wonder whether there is any justice in the world.
‘As global director of GRG, Mr Sach led the strategy which led to the mistreatment and consequential financial distress of many viable businesses. How ironic it is that Mr Sach is now running his own successful business advising companies in the financial sector.’
A victim of GRG told The Mail on Sunday it was ‘totally immoral that he is earning this sort of money’. The full report into GRG was revealed this weekend after MPs on the Treasury Select Committee ordered the Financial Conduct Authority either to publish the document itself or provide them with a copy so that they can do so. The FCA had previously published only a short summary, which omits the findings that management knew or should have known about the widespread mistreatment of clients.
FCA chief Andrew Bailey said last month he would publish the report once the FCA had finished its investigation and given those criticised a chance to respond.
Its publication will turn up the heat on former bosses. Sach ran the GRG and his boss was Nathan Bostock, who now runs Santander UK.
Chris Sullivan ran the corporate banking division for much of the period concerned. He now has a similar role at Santander. Stephen Hester was the overall head of RBS and now runs insurer RSA.
The FCA has said its investigation is almost complete and a decision on whether to take action could be announced within weeks.