RBS

Obituary – Steve Marshall

The Daily Telegraph ran a lengthy obituary on Steve Marshall today, who died recently at the young age of 60. It covered his financial career in a not particularly complimentary way although some might say he took on a lot of difficult positions. He first came to public prominence when he became CEO of Railtrack after Gerald Corbett was forced to resign, despite having minimal experience of the railway industry. Railtrack was part of the former British Rail that had been privatised ...

RBS Shareholder event hijacked by other stakeholder groups

RBS announced excellent results today (4/8/17) and their share price soared 4% to £2.67 in early trading. For detailed commentary see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/08/04/rbs-posts-rare-half-year-profit-eyes-amsterdam-move-staff/ . Things are looking better. The RBS...

RBS Shareholder Event on 31 July

I am looking forward to the RBS Shareholder Event on Monday 31 July in London. RBS had dropped regular shareholder briefings, but, following our shareholder committee campaign, have now reinstated...

RBS Shareholder Committee Campaign Update 5

This note has been issued to the campaign supporters. Thank you for help and support so far. I am writing to update you on progress, which is very disappointing. I expect some of you will not read all of this long post and quite understand if you only read part: for those who wish to, I have included my full report on the RBS AGM below. RBS refused to put our resolution on the AGM Agenda. Mark Northway, ShareSoc Chairman and Cliff Weight, ...

RBS Potential Settlement: Where’s the Justice?

It seems that the major players in the RBS Action Group have accepted the latest RBS offer. See http://files.constantcontact.com/2fe662f5101/de78446f-b327-4d5e-9eee-5fcd584c7e8c.pdf This has, in effect, enabled RBS to bully the small individual shareholders into also accepting the settlement. I say “bully” because RBS are threatening anyone who pursues the case to risk having costs awarded against them. So now the case will be settled. No-one will be found guilty. RBS will pay out £800 million (of shareholders’ money) to a group of its shareholders without ...

A tale of three AGMs

by Cliff Weight Last week I went to 3 AGMs. Aviva on Wednesday, 10 May in London and then Lloyds in the morning of the 11th and RBS in the afternoon, both in Edinburgh. Aviva was very well attended with about 600 people in the Queen Elizabeth Centre. There were plenty of displays of the Aviva products, lots of staff to explain them and deal with any customer issues or complaints. There were also stands explaining the business (noticeable by its absence was ...

RBS, Akzo Nobel and Hornby

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) AGM is tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what excuses the board of directors give for rejecting the requisition of a resolution to establish a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc believes the rejection has no sound legal basis and ShareSoc directors will raise this issue at the meeting. Another similar case is that of Akzo Nobel in Holland where Elliott Advisors have been pushing the board to consider a takeover offer from US company PPG Industries. ...

Banks and Bank Credit Card Accounting

It's going to be exciting week next week for RBS and Lloyds Bank shareholders with both AGMs on Thursday in Scotland - we expect to issue a report on events. Indeed it's going to be an exciting period ahead because the law suits by those investors in the RBS rights issue who have not yet settled, and an action over the takeover of HBOS by LloydsTSB, are both getting into court in the next few months. Having Fred Goodwin on the witness ...

RBS AGM Voting Recommendations

ShareSoc has today issued the following press release giving voting recommendations for the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS): ShareSoc recommends voting against the following resolutions at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of RBS: 2 Remuneration Policy, 3 Remuneration Report, 4 Chairman Howard Davies, 12 NED Penny Hughes and 24 General Meetings at 14 day notice. RBS have continued to resist our request for a shareholders’ resolution to be put to the AGM for the establishment of a Shareholder ...

FT Article on RBS and Shareholder Committees

The Financial Times have published an article under the headline "Investors fight RBS snub to shareholder committee move". It covers the battle by ShareSoc to get the Royal Bank of Scotland to accept a resolution for their AGM to appoint a Shareholder Committee. See the ShareSoc campaign web page here for more explanation of the benefits of such a Committee and how RBS are currently thwarting shareholder democracy: https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/rbs/. One of the supporters of this concept to improve corporate governance and reign in ...

RBS and Shareholder Committees

As readers may be aware, ShareSoc have requisitioned a resolution for the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) Annual General Meeting requiring a Shareholder Committee be appointed. Do they need one? The directors of RBS clearly think not. For those readers who do live or work in London, you may find an article published yesterday (15/2/2017) in the London Evening Standard giving an overview of the major UK banks revealing. The article was written by Simon English and was headlined "End of the ...

RBS Rejects Democracy

ShareSoc has today issued the following press release: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable...