Sir David Walker to assist in RBS probe
BRITAIN’S financial watchdog has called on Sir David Walker to intervene in a row between the regulator and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) over the publication of the long-awaited report into the lender’s collapse.
The City grandee, who led a government inquiry into bank pay in 2009, will help to steer the Financial Services Authority (FSA) through the minefield of legal issues delaying the release of the report.
Sir David will aid the watchdog in finalising the content of the report, as well as the tone in which it delivers evidence. The report into the near-collapse of RBS at the height of the financial crisis, prompting a government bailout package, was originally promised for March.
It was commissioned amid public outrage after the FSA revealed it would not make public the findings of any probe into the failed lender.
Senior politicians are lobbying for the report not to be watered down, while lawyers for RBS are said to be concerned that the findings could open the floodgates for fresh litigation.
Sir David was formerly the chairman of Morgan Stanley before he took retirement in 2005. He was previously deputy chair of Lloyds TSB.
The formal appointment of Walker, as well as another senior City figure, is expected today.