Sunday, October 19, 2008
Run With Wolves;
Bank With Brits
The Hacks are back!0 comments
From Rupert Murdoch's pro-greed organ, MarketWatch:
Corporate governance takes back seat in bank bailouts
Oops.
You knew this was coming, right?
Time for Barack Obama to rework that stump speech segment about holding runaway CEOs accountable and within limits.
The actual bill? Uh, not so much..."The rock struck the water and it made a significant splash, but the ripples have been limited by the actual rules," Patrick McGurn, special counsel at corporate governance specialist RiskMetrics Group, said in an interview. "From a corporate standpoint, the fine print has limited some of the impact of the bailout package."
Now, the British response actually has some teeth.... the UK government is exerting more control over the banks it's investing in. It's planning to appoint three new directors at Royal Bank of Scotland and two directors at the bank that's created when Lloyds TSB acquires HBOS PLC.
"In line with normal commercial practices, the government on behalf of taxpayers will have appropriate representation on their boards," Chancellor Alistair Darling said. "These shareholdings will be managed on a fully commercial basis by an arm's-length body—with a precisely defined remit—to act in the interests of taxpayers."
Makes perfect bloody sense. But in the U.S., according to McGurn,"The legislation looked like it had real teeth, but the interim final rule is just a gap-toothed smile."
Lovely.
SMILE!
posted by Gotham 12:03 PM
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