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Proceeding contribution from Lord Eatwell (Labour) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 13 January 2009. It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL) and Debate on bill on Banking Bill.


Banking Bill

Can the Minister help me further on the arm's-length issue? He defined ““arm's length”” as involving a company being conventionally run in a successful manner. Such a company is usually run by its owners as represented on the board, and one would expect that if an owner held a majority of shares in the company, minority shareholders, who could enter or exit as they wished, would follow the general policy pursued by the majority shareholder. In the case of Royal Bank of Scotland, the Government are the majority shareholder by a substantial proportion. In this situation, why are they pretending that they are a sleeping partner and leaving commercial decisions to the whim of minority shareholders or the management who are not acting in the interests of the taxpayer?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
706 c1165 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Disclosure of information Codes of practice Accountability Administration Assets Bank services Banks Credit unions Building societies Bank of England Deposits Financial institutions Insolvency Legislation Government assistance Financial Services Authority Financial markets Foreign companies Protection Public sector Public expenditure Nationalisation Terrorism Regulation Shareholders Treasury Financial Services Compensation Scheme Northern Rock Freezing of assets
Legislation
Banking Bill 2007-08 to 2008-09
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk