FSA: Probe into RBS can be published

By SIMON DUKE FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

MPs have the power to publish the controversial report into the Royal Bank of Scotland collapse, according to Britain's top financial regulator.

Lord Turner

Lord Turner: Legally possible to publish but he urged MPs to resist using their powers in this way

Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, believes it would be 'legally possible' for the Treasury Select Committee to put the muchdelayed probe into the public domain.

The claim came to light in a March letter from Lord Turner to Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chairman of the TSC, in which he urged the committee to resist using Parliamentary Privilege in this way.

Turner argued that publishing the account of RBS's near collapse in 2008 drawn up by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers could 'potentially prejudice the effectiveness' of future investigations.

Since then, Tyrie has drafted City grandees Sir David Walker and Bill Knight to act as arbiters in the legal dispute that has embroiled the RBS investigation.

Sir David and Knight are calling in a number of former RBS directors to give further evidence on the RBS debacle, including an alleged affair between former boss Sir Fred Goodwin and a former colleague.

The full details of the relationship cannot be disclosed because of a gagging order.

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