Treasury Select Committee: Thurso expresses constituents' anger to top bankers

12.00.00am GMT Tue 10th Feb 2009

As a member of the Treasury Select Committee John Thurso MP took the opportunity today to grill former top bankers from RBS and HBOS on the banking crisis, their role in the crisis and what lessons had been learnt.

John focused his questions on the corporate governance of banks and also the role of non-executive directors in assessing risk. He also wondered how, given the complexity of the financial instruments involved, the board and non-specialists could be expected to evaluate or even understand the risks they were running.

John finished his questioning of the bankers by saying "99% of my constituents feel that if a great black whole opened up and every merchant banker in the world and arbitraged trader and credit derivative inventor disappeared down it the world would be a better place and could we get back to Captain Mainwaring running a bank we could trust!"

Former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive Fred Goodwin, Andy Hornby, former chief executive of HBOS, former HBOS chairman Lord Stevenson and Sir Tom McKillop, former RBS chairman took the opportunity of appearing before the Select Committee to express their "profound and unqualified apology."

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