Today’s post departs from the usual approach adopted here in Financial Regulation Matters . Usually, we will discuss elements within business and regulation that are breaking, have a guest post, or we will preview forthcoming articles and books from this author. Usually, the posts are not written in first person, but in this post I will use that approach to discuss why the “fearless girl” statue is the focus for this post. I have visited Manhattan on a number of occasions, and those close to me know that New York City represents something very special to me. Quite often, when visiting the city, I will take a trip to Wall Street and take in the surroundings. One element that is often on my to-do list is to take a look at the legendary ‘ charging bull ’ statue located near Battery Park and Wall Street. Whilst the location is prime, it is worth noting that the original location, as placed by the statue’s creator Arturo Di Modica, was directly outside the New York Stock Exchange (w...

Unsurprisingly, RBS and its now-infamous ‘Global Restructuring Group’ (GRG) have been covered a number of times here in Financial Regulation Matters (most notably here , here , and here ). We have also analysed the relationship between the regulators, namely the FCA, and the bank itself on account of the massive bail-out the bank received from British taxpayers at the height of the financial crisis. We have called into question the ability, or capacity of regulators to efficiently regulate and punish the bank owing to this ‘special relationship’ and, in today’s post, we will look at the latest twist in the tale that ‘ MPs have referred to as the worst scandal since the financial crash ’. In the previous posts linked above we discussed and analysed how RBS, via its GRG group, failed thousands and thousands of SMEs ( the BBC cite 16,000 ) with a large number of those companies ending up ruined by decisions taken by the GRG unit – the business media state today that ‘ many of the...

Here in Financial Regulation Matters we have discussed the precarious future of the British high street on a number of occasions, ranging from discussing the collapse of BHS , the rise in the number of corporate failures , and the impact that the personal debt crisis is having upon the futures of high street stalwarts. We also looked recently at the case of House of Fraser, both in relation to its near-collapse and then its subsequent rescue . As we speak, another British high-street mainstay – HMV – is in crisis talks over a rescue bid from Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley and, if Ashley does incorporate HMV into his retail empire, then his imprint on the British high street will be more than considerable. Therefore, in this post, we will ask who is Mike Ashley and question how the British high street will continue to be transformed in the wake of such rapid development. Starting with HMV – and if reports are to be believed – Mike Ashley has ‘ enter[ed] the bidding for HM...

In today’s post, we will look at something which we have covered a number of times here in Financial Regulation Matters , and that is the personal debt arena which continues to increase. After official figures were released recently, we can continue to chart this dangerous phenomena. However, we will examine this issue in relation to a number of connected issues, like consumer spending, to examine what is, in effect, a massively systemic cycle . It was reported recently that, in November alone, more than £400 million was added to the total personal debt owed in the UK alone, which now stands at £72.5 billion . In the UK, the average household debt now stands at £15,385 and this figure is in relation to a number of sources of credit including credit cards, banks, and the auto-sector. In the US, the total household debt stood at just over $13 trillion as of August last year, whilst Chinese debt is continuing to rise. Although we are talking about personal debt in this post, it...

As 2019 begins and we look back on 2018, it has been, as always, a busy year for the world of business and the regulators tasked with controlling it. In this review post, we will look back over the year by sector, and discuss some of the flashpoints to analyse whether there are any themes that can help us foresee what 2019 has in store. Before that, I would like to thank everybody for their continued support of the blog, and also all of those kind contributors who have provided guest posts throughout the year. Also, in a bit of shameless promotion, my first two books are now available for purchase and I would like to thank everybody at Routledge for bringing Regulation and the Credit Rating Agencies: Restraining Ancillary Services to life, as well as everybody at Palgrave Macmillan for bringing The Role of Credit Rating Agencies in Responsible Finance to life. A Year of Failure There were a number of high-profile failures this year, and many were socially impactful. In 201...