UK Report: Exec Banker Bosses Should ‘Face Ban from Finance Sector’

Rarely have a company’s former bosses been given such a public going-over.
From left: Former chairman of HBOS Lord Stevenson; and former chief executives Sir James Crosby and Andy Hornby Photo: PA

Stephen: It’s all about accountability… Even without the 2008 crash, the £40 Billion HBOS Bank was on a course to ruin, thanks to the ‘colosssl failure’ of its senior executives and Chairman. Now a UK Commission says they should face a lifetime ban from ever working in the financial sector again. They also get to suffer the ignominy of what is a very public drubbing.

HBOS: Former Bosses Should be Banned from Financial Sector, Says Commission

HBOS’s former chairman and chief executives should be banned from working in the financial services sector after their “reckless” and “deluded” stewardship of the bank, a parliamentary body has argued.

By Alistair Osborne, Business Editor – April 5, 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/04/bankers-brought-down-hbos

In a damning report into the downfall of HBOS, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards lays the blame squarely at the door of the trio that led the bank from its creation in 2001, via the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, until its collapse in 2008.

“The HBOS story is one of catastrophic failures of management, governance and regulatory oversight,” says commission chairman Andrew Tyrie. “The commission concluded that primary responsibility for these failures should lie with the former chairman of HBOS, Lord Stevenson, and its former chief executives, Sir James Crosby and Andy Hornby.”

Mr Tyrie notes that so far only Peter Cummings, who headed HBOS’s corporate division between 2005 and 2008, “has faced regulatory sanction for HBOS’s failures”, having been fined £500,000 last September by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and banned from working in the banking industry.

Expressing “surprise” at that, Mr Tyrie says the commission has asked regulators to consider whether the other three individuals “should be barred from undertaking any future role in the sector”.

After an “aggressive” lending spree, HBOS collapsed at the height of 2008’s financial crisis as liquidity dried up in the wholesale markets. It was acquired by Lloyds Banking Group, but such were HBOS’s problems that Lloyds was forced into a £30bn bailout. The taxpayer now owns 41pc of the enlarged bank.

The commission criticises HBOS’s “incompetent and reckless board strategy”, calls its corporate governance a “model of self-delusion”, and complains about the lack of banking experience at the top. Sir James and Mr Hornby had come from the insurance and retail industries. It quotes Lloyds’ former chief executive, Eric Daniels, complaining that “talented amateurs” were put in charge of risk.

The FSA is also criticised for “thoroughly inadequate” regulation, but the commission reserves its most trenchant criticism for Lord Stevenson, claiming he has “shown himself incapable of facing the realities of what placed the bank in jeopardy”.

The report claims Lord Stevenson told the FSA after the rescue of US bank Bear Stearns in March 2008 that “without wishing to be the slightest bit complacent, we feel HBOS in this particular storm… is in as safe a harbour as is possible”. The report notes that HBOS was, in fact, “holed below the water line”.

A friend of Lord Stevenson hit back, saying the report’s credibility was undermined by the commission “pinning everything on management failure. Isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that 25 banks around the world all collapsed at the same time?” he said. “Are we meant to conclude that they all collapsed because of bad management.”

The Fall of HBOS: A ‘Manual of Bad Banking’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9972712/The-fall-of-HBOS-a-manual-of-bad-banking.html

Archangel Michael via Ron Head: My Dear Friends, Tomorrow Is Here

Archangel Michael via Ron Head: My Dear Friends, Tomorrow Is Here

As channeled by Ron Head – April 4, 2013

http://oraclesandhealers.wordpress.com/

You have reached the end of a short period of rest, which we gather from our channel, you really were not all that comfortable with.

It is time now for you to assess the tools available to you and to determine what your contributions will be. Are you truly ready to begin? If it all breaks loose tomorrow, can you say that you truly are ready? Because, my dear friends, tomorrow is here.

We have stated many times through our trusted channels that this season would be the time in which things would be ready to begin, and they are. We have said that we awaited a certain point to be reached and a signal to be given. There is now no further reason to wait.

But there is one teensy consideration to take into account. What will you do? It need not be something as grandiose as, “I will change the world!” But you should know by now what you love to do and how it might contribute to a better place for all. There are, after all, several billions of you to make such contributions. And there are right now, many millions of you ready to start.

So look deeply into your hearts and simply declare “This is the start!” It takes no more than that, my friends. This is the start. Perhaps add frequently, “Is this helping?” A good question to begin with, don’t you think? And then, dearest ones, if it is not, make a change.

And do a thing for yourselves, please. Start giving yourselves credit for being worthy and deserving when we tell you that you are. Think. The universe had many trillions of volunteers to come and do this job. You are here. Why is that, do you suppose? Stop wasting your valuable energies beating yourselves up and apply them to the task at hand. Not all of you do that, by any means, but far too many do. Not only is the past long over, not only are you the only one concerned with it, but you are needed now to do much greater things.

Look around, not outside, but in your hearts, and realize that the only judge in sight is yourself. Even assuming that there was once something that you needed to judge yourself for, and there was nothing there dear one but illusion, forgive it. Drop it. Let it go. Your Creator has long since forgiven you. Won’t you do the same?

Now! Look out at the future and see how much brighter it appears. You see, all of that past taught you many, many things. You are expert in many of them. You are. Don’t worry. They will surface when needed. Just begin. Make today better. Imagine that happening by a power of millions. Do it again tomorrow. Here we go, dearest angels. Here we go.

We will speak again soon. Good day.

Copyright © Ronald Head. All Rights Reserved. You may copy and redistribute this material so long as you do not alter it in any way, the content remains complete, and you include this copyright notice link: http://oraclesandhealers.wordpress.com/

Aisha North: The Manuscript of Survival – Part 295

As channeled by Aisha North – April 4, 2013

http://aishanorth.wordpress.com

As many of you have already ascertained, the veils are lifting one by one, and this denouement can in some cases cause even more bewilderment amongst you. For what is this that you have taken for granted all of your life, if not just a puff of smoke, a mirage masquerading as reality? It can be almost overpowering at times when you find yourself standing in this full glare of the truth, as you have to reassess so much that you have built not only this, but also all of your previous lives upon.

So yes, the Light is merciful indeed, but also merciless, for it leaves nothing to the imagination any more, and you are forced to take everything up for review as you know you must. For you cannot continue on this journey with your eyes and your heart closed to this truth, and even if may be painful in some aspects, it is also the final catharsis that will effectively cauterize any last vestiges of old suppurating wounds, and leave you all to finally heal and become whole again.

For that is indeed what this journey is all about, coming together and gathering all of the aspects of you that have been dispersed far and wide during your sojourns on this planet. And their task has been this one, to gather as much experience as possible, by falling headlong into life in all of its aspects, both those deemed as ”good” and also those deemed as ”bad”. For once the veils start to drop, you will know that there are no such things as ”good” or ”bad”, for everything carries equal measure in this theater of life.

But now, you have learned enough the hard way and you are extracting yourselves from this old play. And do not forget, this old play was indeed infested by a large extra helping of darkness a long time ago, by those outsiders dead set on making this whole show keep running long after it was supposed to be closed down. And as such, you have in many ways been forced to play out ever more sinister versions of this theater of life.

But now, that show has been called off, and you are no longer under the spell of those puppeteers who so enjoyed watching you all squirm under their hard tenure. So now, you are finally let off from this old forced labour and free to start to play out the new version of your life on Earth-school.

For remember, that is why you are all here, to amass knowledge that can only be acquired by living a life in a physical vehicle such as yours, and in such surroundings as the one your beautiful blue planet offers you. And now, the time has come to re-enter school, but this time it is the school of Light, as you have all finished the old ”school of darkness” a long, long time ago. As we said, your tenure there overran its stipulated date by a very, very long time indeed.

But now, that has been set right once again, and you will be invited to enter these new halls of knowledge at your own volition. For remember, not all will be tempted to leave the old school, as they would rather stick to the old tried and true, however painful, than to risk severing all of the old connections and throwing themselves wholeheartedly into this new adventure.

For again we say, it is indeed up to each and every one of you if you want to access these new halls of the Light, or if you prefer to stay in that airless and dimly lit theater of the old. We cannot force you to do anything, nor would we even try, for it is a sacred edict that on this planet all are serving under the rule of free will.

For yes, this is a place you come to serve, not only yourselves, but also the rest of Creation. For what you amass of knowledge here, goes back to that all-encompassing repository of knowledge that is accessible for all living beings in Creation. That is, apart from the ones inhabiting your planet. For you have been effectively cut off from this endless source of wisdom and energy. But what you have experienced here, has been downloaded into this knowledge bank, and now, by taking that final step into the Light, you will also become the recipients of this vast sea of knowledge.

So from you being merely a depositor of knowledge, this stream of consciousness will start to go both ways. And as you enter the halls of this school of Light, your body and your mind will start to receive huge downloads of this information, information that will literally change your whole world, not only the way that you look upon it.

So again we say, that school’s out, as you have already more than delivered what was acquired of you in the last grade, but now, we invite you to enter this new school, where the Light will instruct you and Love will be your guiding light, and fear will no longer be the measuring stick against which all will be judged.

For you have learned more than enough from that old regime, and now the time has come to reopen the books and reopen your heart to the true knowledge of the Light. The old has served its mission, but the time has come to close that door and open the ones that lead you to your new level of understanding.

Slowly but surely, renewable energy has crept into the marketplace, commanding a bigger percentage of the energy economy than ever before. Still, politicians argue that Americans are more interested in cheap energy than clean energy, and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get our fix. A new Gallup poll begs to differ, however.

The survey, conducted March 7-10, 2013, found that 2 out of 3 Americans, including Republicans, want the U.S. to place more emphasis on the development of solar. Wind energy wasn’t far behind, while fossil fuels, including natural gas, trailed the pack, according to Gallup.

76 percent of the 1,022 adults surveyed said they want the U.S. to put more emphasis on producing domestic energy using solar power. Wind power was next in line, garnering 71 percent support among respondents. Natural gas could only muster third place, with 65 percent of those surveyed saying they would prefer greater emphasis on its production.

Encouragingly, the Big Three of Fossil Fuels were even less popular. Only 46 percent of those surveyed thought the U.S. should continue to emphasize the production of oil, and nuclear powercaptured only 37 percent support. Least favored of all was coal, with only about one in three Americans wanting to prioritize its domestic production.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans and Democrats disagree most on the priority that should be given to oil as a future energy source — with 71 percent of Republicans wanting more emphasis placed on it, compared with 29 percent among Democrats (maybe someone should tell President Obama).

Where Americans live makes a difference in their views about which sources of domestic energy they want the U.S. to emphasize more, reports Gallup. Those living in the South tend to be more supportive of traditional energy sources, such as oil and coal than are those in other regions.

Review a full summary of poll results here.

Related Reading:

Top 3 Dirty Energy Battles to Watch In 2013

8 Things Paul Ryan Wishes You Didn’t Know About His Energy Budget

America Needs To Catch Up On Alternative Energy

Read more: energy policy, fossil fuels, gallup poll, renewable energy, republicans, solar energy,solar power, wind power

Image via Thinkstock

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/even-republicans-favor-solar-over-fossil-fuels.html#ixzz2Phh6UP8c