Ex-bank chairman buying drugs - time for an end to the old boys network?

Quite right Jess, the system stinks. I switched to the Coop Bank because I thought it was more ethical. I left it again after the mess it made of the takeovers it stupidly got involved in. I saw in the paper today that this man's only experience of banking was when he spent four months working in one many many years ago. Not that RBS was any better.

Any suggestions for a really ethical bank?

Definitely not, if that's how it's done. (I'm still naive enough to think that people are appointed on merit after an equitable selection process...)

It seems that the Reverend Flowers is/was involved in the gay drug scene, and he said he's sorry, so that's okay then.

I never fail to be amazed at the outright stupidity of the so called great and good who seem to lack both moral compass and basic common sense.

This news over the weekend made me relieved I hadn't moved to the Co-op Bank last year to be part of a more ethical bank. I share the bewilderment as to how and why Rev Flowers was appointed to Chair the Co-op Bank when he had no substantial experience in banking. It does fit though, with this general idea that senior managers don't need a background in the work of the organisation they lead. One former CEO's of the family court organisation had previously been CEO of a 2nd hand car sales firm.

I'm not a supporter of the kind of risk taking lifestyle that Rev Flowers appears to have been living. No-one should be giving evidence to select committees, or turning up for work having spent the previous evening getting "wasted". The level of hipocrisy he was living with is pretty nauseating, but I don't like the salacious tone of the reporting. Kettle - Pot comes to mind.

Not only all the above but the incredulous salary he was receiving (I was gong to put earning, but realise that is the wrong word) In all honesty I cannot believe that anyone either deserves or needs a salary of a hundred thousand pounds plus per year, but this seems to the norm for financial organisations which appear to be running the country at the moment, at our expense. Not only that but 'rewards' that come as bonuses, and the expensive pay-offs when they are made redundant.

part time salary printmiss

Whilst agreeing with Printmiss I would like to point out that one hundred thousand pounds is peanuts to most chairs of banks!

I have banked on-line with the Coop for sometime, and I have to say that the service is good. However, I find this episode with the chairman to be very very worrying. The organisation must be deeply flawed to have given such a responsible job to such poorly qualified (in just about every respect) person. I heard him being interviewed by a select committee, and he was tens of billions out in his estimate of how much his bank was capitalised. Even the worst duffer in the job can normally bluff their way through with the help of a few briefing notes from an executive. He was obviously so arrogant, that he thought his undoubted (to himself) abilities would just allow him to breeze through. Either that or his execs decided to let the lions devour him on their behalf. I'll have to think about my continuation as a customer. Perhaps I should be grateful that the Hedge Funds are in there now (!?!)

Zephrine Yes, I agree, but that was the figure I heard this church minister was receiving. In fact, my friends son earns that much, not so much in a 'wage' as we know it, but certainly with the bonuses he earns each month. He lives in the money world, which is stressful, and has some responsibility, but not as much as the lowly nurse, that is where the unfairness of it all comes. And to use stress as an excuse for resorting to adictive drugs is just beyond belief for someone like that.

And most chairs of banks have at least got years of experience in the industry...

They still manage to make a total mess of it though!

Do we really have any more faith in the boards of other banks - they hardly have a glowing record?

What worries me is that someone with something like a drug habit to hide can be open to intimidation and blackmail, which could include sabotaging the employer for which they work, on behalf of rivals.

Do they JessM? Do you remember Fred the Shred – and he was just one?

no I don't remember absent
The responsibilities of a director, even in a small company are considerable. They are responsible for making sure that the management of the company is acting in the best interests of the shareholders. There is also a lot of company law that must be followed. Directors can go to prison if there are major breaches of health and safety legislation - corporate manslaughter etc. That's before they understand how business accounting works and how the particular industry functions.
Chairs should have the knowledge to mentor, support or challenge an MD.
It would be great to be a fly on the wall wouldn't it and see how many board members actually earn their money and how many just turn up and drink the coffee.

Quite funny that Co-op members got letters at the weekend stating that the due dividends would not be paid this half-year, as the Co-op had made a loss! Good to at least know where it went!!

I've been with the Cop op for ovr 40 years, and was already concerned. Now this news! I know maybe other banks also have problems, but just don't know whether to stay with them or not, although I've alwasy been happy with them.

Is there anyone in authority who remains untainted by greed of one sort or another? I'm sick to death of the whole lot of 'em - ministers, bankers....

I'm so upset about the Co-op Bank - we've been customers for years and have always been happy with it, and now all this.

golden I feel much as you do.

I thank my lucky stars that when I was thinking about switching to the Co-op Bank, my sheer laziness got in the way!

JessM Fred Goodwin, CEO of RBS who resigned with a large pension and golden goodbye a month before RBS announced a 24 billion pound loss. Renowned for his ruthlessness and self-interest, he was an accountant not a banker. He became CEO of some other company in a different field later, I think, but resigned after a pretty short tenure.

People get put in prison for petty thieving and yet these rogues, who've cost the country millions and millions, walk away unscathed. Sickening.

Accountancy is a good skill set in a director. But I agree there are some over-rated suits in some of these posts. Bound to be given the cavalier way they are recruited.

I find it more upsetting that he calls himself Rev and was/is a Methodist minister. What a hypocrite.

I am with you there Atqui, I often wonder why it is these men think themselves above the law.