The independent legal adviser appointed by MPs has signed off the Financial Conduct Authority's summary of the report into the treatment of Royal Bank of Scotland's business customers.
Andrew Green QC had been appointed by the Treasury Select Committee to verify that the FCA's summary report accurately reflected the actual report's findings.
The FCA had declined to publish the full report into RBS's Global Restructuring Group, which was supposed to help distressed small businesses but faced accusations of forcing them into bankruptcy, saying this was not in the public's best interests.
Mr Green has now written to the committee to say the FCA's summary was a "fair and balanced" representation of the full report.
He said: "Summarising a report that contains some 300 pages, into around 30 pages, is not a straightforward task and requires a considerable exercise of judgment. We consider the FCA has approached it conscientiously and with success."
But he did highlight four areas where the summary could be improved, including the inclusion of specific findings on the customer transfer process as it operated in Northern Ireland and reflecting some of the report's conclusions more fully.
Mr Green said one "significant issue" was that the FCA chose to omit from the summary certain findings about GRG management's knowledge of the company's failings.
He said: "In consequence, there are material omissions from the interim summary as to the state of knowledge of GRG’s management about the failings in GRG."
But he did not criticise the FCA for this because the omission was candidly identified in the introduction of the summary and the reasons for this were explained.
The FCA said this morning (28 November) that it accepted the drafting changes which Mr Green proposed.
It said: "The FCA continues to investigate the matters arising from the Skilled Person’s Report and is focusing on whether there is any basis for further action within our powers."
More than 12,000 companies were transferred into GRG between 2007 and 2012.
Problems were first noted in November 2013, when Lawrence Tomlinson, then entrepreneur in residence at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, made allegations against RBS.
It claimed the bank artificially distressed otherwise viable businesses and through their actions puts them on a journey towards administration, receivership and liquidation.
It also added that once transferred into the business support division of the bank, the business was not supported in a manner consistent with good turnaround practice and that the insolvency process lacked fairness and accountability.
The following year in January 2014 the FCA announced a review of the conduct of GRG.
damian.fantato@ft.com
