We want our public money back

In the midst of a global pandemic we cannot afford to let those responsible for the financial crash of 2008 / 2009 get away with it. 

We cannot afford to bail out any bank that has committed serious financial misconduct. We as a country, now more than ever, need that money for other things such as the NHS and other public services.

Help Mark Wright, the banker that attempted to save the public and Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders billions by just telling truth. He has paid a heavy price for doing the right thing but with your help he is prepared to keep fighting.

Mark was crushed first by RBS and then by the financial regulator who seems to have helped RBS cover everything up.  The FCA has even misled the former MP Sir Norman Lamb about the situation which has been covered in the press. This is particularly unacceptable as public money was used to bail out RBS.

Below is a video of the debate in the House of Commons on 3 July 2019 when Sir Norman Lamb summarises the situation to MPs.

Regulator more interested in protecting RBS than the public

RBS and now it seems the financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) want to keep hidden a deceptive intranet statement that was released by RBS on their internal computers. The purpose of the statement was to falsely reassure shareholders that the bank was well capitalised when actually at the time the bank was in the process of covertly borrowing Tens of Billions from the Bank of England prior to the Bail Out.  

The statement was put on the RBS Group intranet on 17th September 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Bank and Mark Wright and fellow advisers were instructed to read the statement out to all staff and customers, shareholders, who may be considering selling their shares or removing their cash from the Bank. This was just 3 weeks prior to the bail out. It was removed from the intranet in January 2009, by then any loyal staff and customers who retained their shares had lost 90% of their value. Some staff lost nearly all of their life savings which had been invested in various share save schemes. Intranet access to the statement was then blocked and the Bank and the FCA tried to deny its existence for many years.

The public and shareholders have paid a heavy price for this false intranet statement. Instead of serving the public interest the FCA, seems to be helping RBS executives keep the statement hidden in order to cover their tracks. Sir Norman Lamb has written a letter to the complaints commissioner objecting to the FCA's conduct which can be read here.

To make matters worse the man responsible at the top of the FCA, Andrew Bailey, has now been made Governor of the Bank of England. This appointment occurring even after Mr Bailey was accused of misleading an MP in a debate in the House of Commons.

Mark Wright is launching litigation to force RBS and the FCA to disclose the relevant intranet statement that they both want to keep hidden from the public and RBS shareholders. As the videos below show there is clearly much more to be disclosed here.

This is Mark Wright challenging the former FCA CEO and now Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey on the relevant internet statement;

This dramatic footage of the the end of the FCA Annual General Meeting shows how satisfied the the attendees of the meeting were with the FCA's responses.

Mark Wright's actions and the actions of other RBS whistleblowers were covered in the Scottish Press but the electronic version of the articles were swiftly deleted in England. This video reports on this and more;

Mark Wright states,

" This scandal has to be one of the longest cover-ups in financial services history, the Regulator (The Financial Conduct Authority) is supposed to protect the public from Bank Malpractice yet in this case they have aided the Bank in the continued cover up which has cost staff, public and shareholders billions and it has to stop now”

SOME FACTS REGARDING THE RBS / FCA MARKET ABUSE COVER UP

Karina McTeague an FCA Director stated - 'such a statement could not be found by RBS and that RBS had also confirmed it had not distributed such a statement and that the FCA had no reason to disbelieve them‘

FACT - Ms McTeague stated this to Sir Norman Lamb in December 2013, she then repeated this in April and May 2014 and October 2015. The facts are, that internal FCA emails prove they found the statement in March 2014 but decided not to prosecute either the bank or any Director, or Make Sir Norman or Mark aware they had found it.

Andrew Bailey as Chief Executive of the FCA Said - 'As I'm sure you know this has come out in public on several occasions Fred Goodwin made that statement' and 'it's a well-known fact it was that statement'.

The FCA said - There is no author on the statement they hold.
The Serious Fraud Office said - There is no author on the statement they hold.
The Complaints Commissioner Said - There is no author on the statement he holds. 

FACT - All intranet messages at RBS have an author particularly on such important issues, why has the author been removed from the statement allegedly investigated and why does only Andrew Bailey state it was Fred Goodwin?

Andrew Bailey said - 'That was all covered in the report of the failure of RBS conducted by the FSA at the time'

FACT - There is no mention of the statement or any investigation of it in the 452 page FSA Report produced in 2011.

Andrew Bailey Said - 'it was also the subject of coverage in the TSC hearings in front of Goodwin himself '

FACT - Whilst a statement was mentioned to Fred Goodwin in the TSC Hearing, the statement itself was never produced to the TSC or investigated by it.

RBS Legal Counsel said - 'A central statement was made to staff via the intranet on 17 September 2008 in the wake of turmoil in the financial markets. As you might expect, this sought to reassure staff and to maintain focus on the banks customers. This was entirely appropriate'

RBS Legal Counsel now say about the statement being made public - 'It could be very damaging to the RBS Group'

Mark is challenging the Complaints Commissioner on 2 points

Point 1 – The Complaints Commissioner Anthony Townsend failed to investigate independently and fairly this Market Abuse statement and in breach of his duties, supported the FCA’s cover up of this statement, acting with bias and favouritism to the FCA’s statements and actions in breach of his Office’s duties under FSMA (Financial Services Markets Act). The new Complaints Commissioner Amerdeep Somal has acted with the same bias, immediately dismissing the concerns raised in pre action protocol correspondence, without undertaking any reasonable investigation of the Claimants concerns.

Mark requests that the Court confirms that this matter has not been investigated independently and fairly and Orders the Complaints Commissioners Office to recover and investigate the genuine RBS intranet statement, which should be put in the public domain in the best interests of the public and the hundreds of thousands of shareholders affected by the false intranet statement. 

Point 2 - The FCA improperly failed to respond to the verbal and written complaints from Mark and his advisers and Mark’s member of Parliament Sir Norman Lamb and then later refused to answer such when the formal complaints were again submitted in writing, incorrectly stating that the complaints had not been brought within a 12-month period. This position was improperly upheld by the Complaints Commissioner despite clear evidence to the contrary, the Complaints Commissioner Anthony Townsend failed in his duty to investigate the matter independently and competently and confirm that all matters had been raised in compliance with the FCA’s Complaints Procedure as ‘expressions of dissatisfaction’ within the requisite 12-month period and therefore should be responded to. 

Mark requests that the decision that these complaints were brought out of time is quashed and that the Court Orders that the Complaints Commissioner’s office must now impartially investigate the complaint above which the Claimant had raised repeatedly verbally and in writing during the relevant 12-month period. 

The Judicial Review was recently covered in the press with the headline 

Andrew Bailey misled me over RBS market abuse probe, whistle-blower alleges in the high court

Support from the NHS Doctor and Crowdfunder Dr Chris Day

The NHS Doctor and crowdfunder Dr Chris Day supports and endorses our campaign and has commented;

"The Covid-19 pandemic has brought and continues to bring unprecedented challenges to our chronically underfunded health service. It also has caused devastating damage to our economy. Cases like Mark Wright and RBS that involve abuse of power and abuse of public money are hugely important. This money could have been used for other things.  It seems to me all in society have a duty to support and defend those in banks like Mark Wright that are prepared to stand up for the public interest. The failure in regulation in this case is shocking and another issue that needs to be tackled head on. If all this is not challenged, it will happen again"

The conduct of RBS in respect of the health sector should be of particular concern to doctors and their patients. It appears a number of GP practices could have lost out to RBS as a result of their creative accounting. This video shows the FCA's reaction to the allegation which is less than convincing.

After several months investigating this matter Andrew Bailey’s Executive Team at the FCA stated they would ‘not intervene’ further in the matter. When questioned they refused to explain what they meant by that statement.

This one GP practice alone lost over £5 Million due to the nil compensation result in the IRHP Review, could GP’s practices and in turn the NHS have been cheated out of hundreds of Millions of compensation in the IRHP Review!

Please help Mark Wright, Steve Middleton and Bank Confidential bring some much needed justice and accountability to the banking sector or history will repeat itself.

Help them and their lawyers get hold of that hidden public statement and hold RBS and the FCA to account. Remember you part own RBS!