FCA appoints Andrew Green QC to study RBS GRG report

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed to the Treasury Committee’s proposal for a legal adviser to study its report into misconduct at 73 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland’s now notorious GRG restructuring unit.

The report, leaked to the BBC, said the now-defunct RBS department, set up to help companies in trouble, mistreated clients. The FCA has refused to publish the skilled persons’ report as it said to do so would risk revealing confidential information, and has so far only released a short summary.

But FCA chief Andrew Bailey has now agreed to allow Andrew Green QC to compare its summary with the full report.

The City watchdog’s capitulation follows chairwoman of the Treasury select committee Nicky Morgan’s relentless campaign for full disclosure of the report’s findings, which last week culminated in her ratcheting up the already growing pressure by threatening to force publication.

The MP wrote directly to Mr Bailey specifically proposing the appointment of Mr Green QC as an independent legal adviser to compare the regulator’s impending summary with the underlying report into the scandal.