Well what can one say! After the recent report by Britain's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standard that argues that the three top executives James Crosby, Andy Hornby and Dennis Stevenson that ran the failed HBOS bank had a division of the bank guilty of "very serious misconduct," one of them has volunteered to give up his knighthood and 1/3 of his ridiculous £600,000 pension. Lets remember there was £35 billion of corporate loan losses, £15 billion in Irish and Australian losses and £7 billion of bad debts from its Treasury Department = £57 billion in total, requiring £20 billion taxpayer bailout. The fact that he will still have a £400,000 pension remains outrageous.
As for Andy Hornby. who became CEO of HBOS, he had no prior background in banking having run Asda supermarket. No doubt people were impressed with his MBA from Harvard. But why put someone in charge with no banking experience in charge of a bank ? - I think supermarkets and banks are very different animals. Is having a boss who has no knowledge of the business a good idea? Also that Harvard MBA and case method they are so proud of using needs a good looking at. Many of the failed banks in the US and UK were run by former Harvard MBAs link1 link2. What happened to him after the HBOS failure? Well guess what he got a nice £1 million a year little earner as CEO at Boots plus a tidy annual £240,000 a year pension for life for just 9 years service!.
In a capitalist system people are supposed to be rewarded for success and not for monumental failure. Until we stop this kind of nonsense, I fear we will pay a heavy price in the future. A successful capitalist system requires that the well run companies succeed and expand while the failed companies are wound down. Instead we have spent the last 5 years allowing failed banks to continue to operate and pay huge bonuses and salaries funded by taxpayers and businesses that have suffered in the worst recession in living memory. In particular, we need to concentrate the country's scare public finances on reducing youth unemployment which is currently over 22%, the younger generation need a better deal out of the system than this and other countries are giving them.
As for Andy Hornby. who became CEO of HBOS, he had no prior background in banking having run Asda supermarket. No doubt people were impressed with his MBA from Harvard. But why put someone in charge with no banking experience in charge of a bank ? - I think supermarkets and banks are very different animals. Is having a boss who has no knowledge of the business a good idea? Also that Harvard MBA and case method they are so proud of using needs a good looking at. Many of the failed banks in the US and UK were run by former Harvard MBAs link1 link2. What happened to him after the HBOS failure? Well guess what he got a nice £1 million a year little earner as CEO at Boots plus a tidy annual £240,000 a year pension for life for just 9 years service!.
In a capitalist system people are supposed to be rewarded for success and not for monumental failure. Until we stop this kind of nonsense, I fear we will pay a heavy price in the future. A successful capitalist system requires that the well run companies succeed and expand while the failed companies are wound down. Instead we have spent the last 5 years allowing failed banks to continue to operate and pay huge bonuses and salaries funded by taxpayers and businesses that have suffered in the worst recession in living memory. In particular, we need to concentrate the country's scare public finances on reducing youth unemployment which is currently over 22%, the younger generation need a better deal out of the system than this and other countries are giving them.
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