News - Economics / markets
Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has apologised to MPs for the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland which led to the multi-billion pound bailout of the bank.
Sants, who is set to become deputy governor of the Bank of England, said he is "truly sorry" for the bank's failure that ended up costing the taxpayer £45bn, according to the Telegraph.
Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) on Monday, Sants said he would not let any of the lender's former managers work in finance again.
Sants faces another session with the Committee again to confirm his appointment to the Bank when he takes over the running of Britain's new banking regulator next year. The Committee could recommend he is unsuitable for the job, though they cannot formally block his appointment.
In a shocking admission, Sants added yesterday he was "talked into" applying for the most senior post at the regulator.
Sants made the claim during the meeting with MPs, where FSA chairman Lord Turner and director Margaret Cole also gave evidence on the collapse of RBS.
In response to questions about his own role at the regulator, Sants said he had no ambition to become the chief executive when he joined the FSA as managing director of wholesale and institutional markets in 2004.
He said he did not think his predecessor John Tiner would leave in 2007 and that he had not planned to apply for the job.
However, Sants said he was convinced to apply for the chief executive role and had not planned to stay at the FSA as long as he has.
Categories: Economics / Markets | Regulation
Topics: Fsa
Comments
Crocodile tears
Mr Sants' exhibit crocodile tears are the most repulsive kind of hypocracy known to man. He says he is sorry and yet oursues the RDR which is designed to push more customers into the arms of greedy and incompetent banks. His incompetence is made worse by arrogance and he does not even have the wit to see that.
Posted by: Darrell Monteith
31 Jan 2012 | 08:47
Sorry doesn't cut it
Extraordinary statement by Sants. I didn't really want the job and I'm sorry I didn't do it properly. This is the guy who is soon to be No 2 at the BoE. Scary - do politicians learn nothing?
RBS's former senior managers are not the only ones I wouldn't allow to work in financial services again!
Posted by: Steve Laird
31 Jan 2012 | 08:50
WALKER & SANTS DEFENCES
The next time I have an IFA client who is being pursued relentlessly by FSA Enforcement for some alleged wrongdoing I shall apply the Walker and Sants Defences:
1. I was too busy with TCF to attend to my duties
2. The intellectual environment was not conducive to my observing the FSA Rules
3. I am an IFA not out of choice but force of circumstances
4. I am sorry, truly sorry that I breached the rules, that clients lost out and that I was not paying attention.
Who do Walker and Sants they are kidding?
Are they both stupid enough or arrogant enough to think they have any vestige of credibility after seeking to exculpate FSA and Mr Sants himself on these grounds for their respective failures in regulatory oversight of RBS?
Posted by: Alasdair Sampson
31 Jan 2012 | 08:50
Sorry!!!!!
It is high time this pathetic whimpering creature disappeared into obscurity, via the Tower of London.
I fear that may not happen though and he will be allowed to wreak his incompetence agin with non othe than the Bank of England. Can we not give him to the French, or something?
Posted by: Richard
31 Jan 2012 | 09:12
SANTS - ***hole
Frightening ! Truly frightening !!!
Posted by: Bill Wells
31 Jan 2012 | 09:23
FSA farce
Ah, bless 'im. He wasn't to know and we all make mistakes..
Posted by: Neil Shillito
31 Jan 2012 | 10:27
Ignorance and Arrogance
Classic. Here is a numpty who presided over the collapse, not just of RBS but several other banks, including Northern Rock. He and his crony's at the FSA, the Bank of England, the Treasury and the governemnt of the day were all warned that their regulatory 'model' - i.e. centralising, prescriptive, arbitrary and capricious - would fail. But through a combination of self evident arrogance and the institutional ignorance of all central planners they turned out to be the most incompetent and toxic bunch of chaotic bureaucrats imaginable. If Sants gets to the Bank of England and is Knighted then I for one will know that the lunatics are finally in charge of the asylum.
What really sticks in my craw is that they were all told time and again that they would fail, but they kept on at it. Oh, and it's not £45Bn that he and the Failed FSA have cost the taxpayers (i.e. not Sants), it is £1.2Tr - which is the calculated/estimated full cost of their abject failure.
Posted by: Steven Farrall
31 Jan 2012 | 10:30
I'm laughing at you
RBS had a team of 5 people managing it at the FSA and the manager of that team was part-time! This is not to say they were the same 5 people over the years 2005,06,07.08.
Mr Sants and company to busy filing expense claims and counting bonus payments to be bothered.
They're laughing at you.
Posted by: Mr Fisher
31 Jan 2012 | 11:05
Principles Based Rules
Mr Sants will make sure that none of the senior managers involved in the failure of RBS ever work in the finance industry again. What about him, the head of the FSA soon to be Deputy of The Bank of England?
I am truly sorry as well. He will remain in a very cosy job whilst many hard working, ethical IFA's are having their practices ripped away from them for NOT FAILING their clients. This makes me want to vomit. Someone please sort this out before it is too late. What Mr Sants is making sure of with RDR is that thousands of GOOD PEOPLE never work in finance ever again. Unforgivable.
Posted by: Mark Wheatley
31 Jan 2012 | 11:13
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Hector Sants
He has apologised. Well that is OK then. His failures have cost the country £45B just the man we want at the Bank of England. What next, Jeremy Clarkson as Minister for Political Correctness?
Posted by: Alan Kendrick
31 Jan 2012 | 08:41
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