For one day only: Fred the Shred and friends

Given that this was the first occasion that any of the bosses of the failed banks had appeared in any forum to give an account of their role in the turmoil that has beset Britain’s banking system, today’s scene in the House of Commons was low key, to say the least.

The man the financial pages used to rave about as “Fred the Shred” Goodwin (now Sir Fred) was there. He dreamt up the expansion of RBS, and it was his former chairman, Tom McKillop, who admitted that the takeover of ABN AMRO had been “a mistake”. Lord Dennis Stevenson, chairman of HBOS, admitted that he had no banking qualifications.

You can them all on Channel 4 News and judge their apologies for yourself –

There was only one really big revelation, and it was one which aficionados already knew about: that Paul Moore, erstwhile head of regulatory risk at HBOS, allegedly lost his job for warning of the risks of lending as much as they were lending against what they were taking in. He was sacked by the then chief executive of HBOS, James Crosby (now Sir James).

What we also knew was that the regulatory system designed to ensure that these risks were known about and kept within limits was the FSA. And guess who was a non-executive director of the FSA at the moment that he sacked Paul Moore? You’ve got it: James Crosby.

And now that the FSA has “cleaned house” under its new chairman, Lord Adair Turner, who do we find has risen up the ranks to become deputy chairman? Why, Sir James Crosby.

Does that tell us more about the banking system than perhaps we ever wanted to know? And isn’t that our fault as journalists?