Unity Trust Bank Scandal "Loans for Favours"
George Trefgarne on the City pages of the Daily Mail is on the trail of the UTB scandal. [Not online]. He draws attention to the fact that 12 out of 17 directors have resigned in the last two years. Hardly evidence of good corporate governance.
The article refers to the £6 million sale of the Labour HQ to help repay £2m to UTB due at the end of last month. Guido understands that there was, after paying off the mortgage to the Co-Op Bank, only £500,000 or so in equity left over. Not even enough to meet this month's wage bill. Guido suspects that the loan was rolled over on UTB's books. That the Labour party is making 1 in 5 employees redundant tells you all you need to know. Guido can confirm that UTB has been obliged to report to the FSA monthly as to the status of the Labour party loan.
The Warwick agreement should not be part of the bank's qualifying credit criteria considered by the UTB's Risk Review committee. UTB's board, politically connected as it is, is largely inexperienced in the ways of banking. "Loans for favours" to the unions are the only reason why this union-controlled bank has risked lending so much to the financially troubled Labour party - when no commercial bank would do. Neither the Labour party nor Unity Trust Bank will comment.
The article refers to the £6 million sale of the Labour HQ to help repay £2m to UTB due at the end of last month. Guido understands that there was, after paying off the mortgage to the Co-Op Bank, only £500,000 or so in equity left over. Not even enough to meet this month's wage bill. Guido suspects that the loan was rolled over on UTB's books. That the Labour party is making 1 in 5 employees redundant tells you all you need to know. Guido can confirm that UTB has been obliged to report to the FSA monthly as to the status of the Labour party loan.The Warwick agreement should not be part of the bank's qualifying credit criteria considered by the UTB's Risk Review committee. UTB's board, politically connected as it is, is largely inexperienced in the ways of banking. "Loans for favours" to the unions are the only reason why this union-controlled bank has risked lending so much to the financially troubled Labour party - when no commercial bank would do. Neither the Labour party nor Unity Trust Bank will comment.
44 comments:
I hope Yates of the Yard isn't on holiday
Wouldn't trust his boss Sir Other Bliar (leave your doors open - there are no longer any burglars) to investigate this !
Board Resignations UNITY TRUST BANK PLC:
04/07/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
18/05/2006 288b SECRETARY RESIGNED
20/04/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
13/04/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
13/04/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
07/04/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
25/01/2006 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
12/09/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
08/09/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
15/08/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
05/07/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
26/04/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
21/04/2005 288b DIRECTOR RESIGNED
Looks like a lot of rats leaving that ship...
Good work Guido, keep on them!
Guido,
You are to be congratulated. It has taken an age for any newspaper to print this scandal. This will blow and become the major story it should be soon.
What then for Mrs Harman's
husband? Was he 'upstairs collecting fares' when this lot was agreed?
Rats indeed and they will soon be departing from the Labour sinking ship.
As I said on earlier posts, the directors will have FSA all over them like a cheap suit. Knacker of the yard should take a long hard look. No wonder the directors have been falling like flies. Would you like to be a director of UTB and have all you assets seized and your children sold for medical research by the FSA due to dodgy loans?
I don't think Mrs. Harmans husband was involved in this? He was too busy dodging taxes through loan swaps linked to a residential mortgage (a common practice by the city big boys, but they buy property offshore to avoid attention from Gordons boys)
Are the leaving rats really sensible people who have realised that to be associated with the bank's ultimate failure is likely to cost them whatever they've got in their coffers and have voted accordingly with their feet? After all, there can't be a single trade union leader left who really believes that nu-labour has anything to do with them, except when it comes to their small, but hghly principled bank that looks as though it has been roundly screwed by the incredible shrinking party. Some of its founders must be revolving in their graves at supersonic rates.
Dear Listener 12:16pm
Please supply the names of the resigning officers - presumably, they are matters of public record at the Companies Registry and you have already got them
Your obedient servant etc
G Eagle
anyonebutblair 1.04pm -
"Mrs. Harmans husband....was too busy dodging taxes through loan swaps linked to a residential mortgage"
Are you sure you weren't confusing Harman's hubby Jack Dromey with Tess Jowell's other half David Mills, he of the Italian Job?
I hadn't heard Dromey was involved in any such mortgage loan swapping.
Beggs the question. If the Labour party runs itself insolvently and therefore illegaly, how well is it really running the countries finances?
If I worked for the public sector I would gladly be paying to support the Labour party, in fact desperate to. When New Labour finally gets thrown out after a record amount of time, the full extent of government "book cooking" will become apparent. As DC will not want to put up taxes to pay for GBs financial juggelling act, sacking vast amounts of public servants will be the magor inevitable result. Half a million at least.
The BBC will have no incentive to carry on hiding the nations finacial woes. This will cause the public to stop spending money alltogether.
When this happens, whole farm loads of chickens will come home put there feet up on the living room table, and settle in for a long stay.
Please note that this Company does not comply with the The Combined Code on Corporate Governance. As a non FTSE I believe it does not have to but where it does not it ought to explain why. It does not do that.
To quote from their 2005 Report "With the exception of Rhidian Jones, the IPNED above, the Non-Executive Directors
are either senior executives of business customers and shareholders, or suppliers of key services to the Bank. As a result they are not strictly independent as defined by the Code. They do not participate, however, in Board decisions directly relating to any organisation with which they have an executive relationship. The absence of strict independence of Non-Executive Directors means that the Bank does not comply with the requirements of the
Code in respect of the composition of the Audit committee and the Nomination and Remuneration Committee."
er why not?
They also hold their Board meetings at TUC Congress House in London.
So the Labour party refuses to comment...so what is the status of the Labour Party as an organisation? Is it like a club that is owned by its members or is it a limited company?
Must be a way round getting info out of them either way.
Odd that the The Guardian should be ignoring this. Can any Guardanista (we all know some of them read this blog) explain why? If this related to the funding of the Tory Party La Grande Dame Toynbee and others would be waxing hysterical. The silence speaks volumes.
"As DC will not want to put up taxes to pay for GBs financial juggelling act, sacking vast amounts of public servants will be the magor inevitable result. Half a million at least."
Good. That way we can kiss goodbye to all the strategic outreach coordinators as well as the Guardian's advertising revenue.
Guido - I'm beginning to think this could be your biggest coup yet.
What is happening with UTB is clearly unacceptable practice for a bank.
Also the close relationship between the lener and the borrower almost looks like it's borrowed from one of the Money Laundering videos I had to sleep through when at Barclays.
Watch out for an appeal for public funds to run political parties. Can't be long now, Oh! wait, what is this.. http://forum.partyfundingreview.gov.uk
What a coincidence.
I presume this will be an 'exclusive' in the ST tomorrow
Guido -- excellent news that the mainstream press has taken this up. Just what St Anthony needs in his in-tray. Not.
Don't let this one go Guido. This could be the biggie that finally does for the bunch of shysters.
If it's the case that trade union members cash is being abused in this fashion they should be told what is being done by their barons.
I just looked at the bank's website. http://www.unity.uk.com/index.cfm?itemid=3484
This page is devoted to advice to customers looking to start a banking relationship.
Unfortunately none of the advice offered seems to cover the hypothetical case of a bank becoming insolvent while owing depositors money.
It seems to me that this is a serious oversight in the context of a bank that lends most of its money to one insolvent customer.
Also from Unity's site.
Hot Tips - Sponsorship
If your organisation is setting up a project or campaign, one of the methods you can use to gain support is sponsorship.
Sponsorship is different from a donation or a grant, like everything worth having, it does not come easily – you have to put in the effort and work at it. Hmm. There are specific steps you should follow to get the best results for your organisation. Obtaining sponsorship is a strategic exercise which should be embarked upon professionally, remembering at all times that you are dealing with businesses that want a return for their investment. Yes indeedy.
The following pointers will get you started:
... Companies that have a connection to your organisation ... Like-minded Bruvvers, in other words.
Companies that may have image difficulties and need to win over public opinion ...
Sponsorship is a business agreement not a gift. Even if you do everything properly, you are still likely to receive many rejections before you finally hit gold. Success in securing sponsorship results from
1.Careful planning and targeting
2.Realistic proposals
3.Good negotiating.
4. And what else?
"cover the hypothetical case of a bank becoming insolvent while owing depositors money."
Name a bank that would. Name a company that would offer advice on its website for potentil customers about the hypothetical situation of it becoming insolvent?
"lends most of its money to one insolvent customer"
£4m out of £450m+ ? not even 1% - hardly "most of it's money"
As for earlier comments about director resignations, as far as I read from the website, this would be quite normal in a company where non-exec directors retire from their own organisations (& thus from UTB Board) by rotation, especially within the TU movement.
It was also interesting to read that if the Tories had been as open as Labour in declaring borrowing (as opposed to applying the new rules to suit themselves) they would have had to report some £39m of borrowing v Labour's £28m.
"FSA monitoring the situation" - most likely monitoring you guys and all this misinformation, rumour & mostly inaccurate conjecture. I can't see how they'd be interested in this from a regulatory point of view. Labour & UTB are only "connected" in terms of a client/bank sense so there's nothing to monitor other than "business as usual" monitoring as they would be doing normally.
This issue of Loans for favours.... do you really think that professionals withing the banking industry would get away with that ? I think it makes pretty good business sense for the unions to stop (or at least reduce) "giving" the Labour Party money via funding and lend it to them whilst charging interest. Quite a nice irony to it... proves they are getting commercial in their old age don't you think.
anonymong, 12.04am
The 'you guys' gave it away.
You are the Rt Hon Anthony Blair, and I claim my £5 reward.
Dear god let this be the blow that sinks the Bastards in NuLayber. Go for it Guido
at LAST we seem to have a SMOKING GUN
Why the hell did the government have to set up the Union Monetary Fund in 2005 for???
If the unions own 73.23% of Unity Trust bank, just how much are the Unions worth and why do they need taxpayers money???
I am not in a union but don't tell me that I am paying for this government and the bloody Labour party as well! State funding, looks like we have it already.
Remember listening to Radio 5 6months into this governments first term, bunch of political pundits raving about Blair&Co, that is all except one. Can't remember his name but give him a cigar because he predicted that Nulabour would be more sleazy than the tories.
This all smells like BCCI - let's hope the FSA isn't foolish enough to let another Bank collapse. BCCI was basically a commercial bank - UTB is a charity bank. If the FSA was to drop all those needy people in the poo-poo it would be end of the FSA as well as NL.
If I were a director of the FSA I would weighing up dropping New Labour OR a bunch of Charities in the brown stuff. As I have said before the chaps at the FSA are such nice people I'm sure they wouldn't risk dropping thousands of needy (possibly dying) children in the brown stuff for sake of political brown nosing. Ethics are afterall the corner stone of civilization.
If you read and understand the Chairman's Statement in the latest Grauniad annual report you will understand that this is not a jar of flies that they will be opening.
£4m out of £450m+ ? not even 1% - hardly "most of it's money"
No, No, No and no again - UTB's money is it's shareholders funds and reserves, which amount to around 16.4m as pointed out by Guido and others. The balance of the 450m+ is depositor's money - charities, unions and such like. Get the picture?
"the chaps at the FSA are such nice people". Oh please, Javelin. Nice doesn't get you anywhere in banking. My pet dog is nice, but I wouldn't trust him to carry out a full and complete investigation into dodgy dealings involving NuLab and UTB.
If the nice chaps at the FSA were actually any good, they'd be working in investment banks earning shedloads in bonuses. Not acting as regulators.
Don't hold your breath on an effective or speedy result. Look how long it took to bring BCCI to book.
Anonymong @ 12.04am,
"£4m out of £450m+ ? not even 1% - hardly 'most of it's money' "
Doh! £450m of customer's money you idiot. Are you Robert Maxwell's accountant? The bank is a minnow.
The bank has a capital base of approx £35m of which shareholders funds are £16m. So £4m is a large risk, unless they plan to rob the customers as you seem to be suggesting.
Don't banks lend their depositors' money to borrowers? The difference between the interest charged and the interest paid making the bank a profit for its shareholders.
The whole thing stinks. Policy changes forced by the unions are much worse than a few cronies getting to prance around and insist their employees call them "Lord".
Is there any chance that any of these dodgy dealings involved the United States in any way, shape or form? If this were the case, some of these characters could go the same way as the NatWest Three. Just imagine THAT perp walk.
is THIS New Labour's 'Watergate'?
I hope so.
Other people seem to have more faith in the FSA than I do. It's chaired by the newly knighted SIR Callum McCarthy, whose proudest possession to judge by its prominence in his office was a huge picture of himself with Bliar in New York grinning inanely at each other. Don't be surprised if this one is swept under the carpet.
WmByrd said...
I hadn't heard Dromey was involved in any such mortgage loan swapping.2:08 PM
Brother Jack`s been too busy doing the media rounds explaining why we should welcome the hundreds of thousands of economic migrants who are keeping the wages of his fellow T&G members down,being exploited by ruthless gang-masters and working for below minimum wages in the agricultural and building trades so his members can spend more time at home with their families.The Unions are going the same way as their bastard off-spring,grass-roots organisation consisting of dedicated idealists,the higher you get the further from reality those involved are.
Anonymous 12:51 said
"Don't banks lend their depositors' money to borrowers?"
Yes, indeed they do. However, if the loan goes bad, the shareholders have to put their hands in their pockets to pay back the depositors. That's why the risk calculation is made on equity, not on money under management.
Listener said re Director resignations "looks like lots of rats leaving the sinking ship" , more likely someone warned them of the personal penalties for Directors allowing a company to continue to trade whilst technically insolvent !
I agree with the other posters saying that Guido is too optimistic about the FSA. They're all a load of losers who've turned crypto-communist to disguise their failure to get proper jobs with companies that actually make a positive contribution to the UK (e.g. investment banks). Maintaining even their current jobs depends on Labour staying in power, so just how keen do you think they'll be on following this up?
Funny that no one seems to have mentioned the investigation into the Tory "property deal conducted by the Conservative party and a group of mysterious Middle Eastern tycoons that could lead to the Tories landing a £15m windfall."
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure that accepting funds from abroad is illegal?
Why are the Tories refusing to cough up on who they are dealing with? Why did the Tories refuse to reveal who some of their major donors were over the 05 election?
Funny that Cameron is keen to publicly distance himself from Thatchers' legacy of dodgy "foreign relationships" but is still happy to cash the cheques from it.
It seems that everyone is blind to the fact the the Tories are up to their neck in it too.
Anyway - why are you all so keen for Labour stop "trading"? There'd be nothing for you dig around for and prove how very clever and politically astute you are.
javelin said...
This all smells like BCCI - let's hope the FSA isn't foolish enough to let another Bank collapse. BCCI was basically a commercial bank - UTB is a charity bank. If the FSA was to drop all those needy people in the poo-poo it would be end of the FSA as well as NL.
dropping needy people in it, as in all the english state benefit thats being eaten by the banks in unlawful charges you mean?, weres the protection for these needy people once that labour induced scandal is aired if ever, nowere it seems in engleish law, the scots are ok though as their MP's did protect their most needy.#
just need to look in any of the bank threads on the http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/ to see first hand that the banks are taking every single penny of the poorest in the uk. theres no justice unless for the poor, fight fight , fight all the way, theres a double edge to all this though, if the gov leave the banks to their bussiness as usual, then it might find that these people are left with no other choice but to take the hard route and start using what they were forced to learn about the law, and use it in their everyday life, imagine that on mass, does the gov really want masses of ordinary low income people challenging every single perceaved injustice, or are they going to make it easyer to get justice by making the banks stick to their own code of practice http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/bulletins/Bulletin%2021%2027%20Jul%2006%20PDF%20FINAL.pdf
A&L and indeed many other banks are closing the accounts of the low income state benefits familys as retribution and these paople are finding it near impossible in many cases to open a new account to have their required child benefits ,incomesupport payed to them, the banks have seen fit to deprive them of their right to benefit to pay the unlawful in common law etc bank charges.....
its wrong and noone in power seems to want it stopped.
Assuming all the trade unions backing Unity Trust Bank are mutuals like Unison is, the members of the unions are all set for a fall if the bank goes under.
The Bank of England is Lender of Last Resort in the UK so if the bank collapsed or fell into financial difficulties, public funds could be drawn upon by the Bank of England to keep it afloat or to honour its liabilities. And the final decision on whether public money can be used by the Bank of England in these circumstances is ... the Chancellor.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2340574,00.html
Sunday Times has the story only 8 days after you...
Senior Scottish Judge allows fraud accusations against Labour loaning bank to proceed
As the Labour Party Conference opens one of its major remaining financial supporter will be anxiously watching the court of session in Edinburgh where allegations of fraud, crooked politicans and legal wrong-doings are likely to surface.
Unity Trust Bank, which celebrated its 21st Anniversary last year, recently provided a £4 million pounds bailout to New Labour, which is struggling with a deficit following the cash for peerages scandal.
The outcome of the legal action, which has been on-going for over 10 years, could have major implications for the future of the bank which was established in 1984 "as an alternative to mainstream banks that are primarilty profit driven."
On the 21st September 2006 Lord Drummond Young granted Martin Frost the right to proceed with his summons at the Court of Session
A copy signed summons is herewith enclosed. It was obtained upon the back of the enclosed legal argument.
The legal argument centres on a purported sophisticated fraud which alleges:
· Wrong-doing by court staff
· Bent judges
· Crooked politics
The happenings suggest
· Further Labour Party funding irregularities
· Involvement of Gordon Brown as well as Tony Blair
Alleged protagonists in the purported fraud are:
· Lady Smith
· Sheriff Peter Anderson
Further Establishment dishonesty - Read it at http://www.martinfrost.ws
Unity Trust Bank Plc ( http://www.unity.uk.com)
In 2005 Unity Trust Bank loans to charities and community development finance initiatives in Scotland account for 33.2% of the banks investment.
Shareholders represented on the board include major UK Trade Unions such as Amicus, Communications Worker's Union, GMB, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Users, TGWU, UNISON, USDAW, The Cooperative Bank and the TUC.
Unity Trust Bank is one of the supporters of CORE (http:// www.corporate-responsibilities.org) the Corporate Responsibility coalition which has set out proposals "aimed at a balanced approach to business".
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