Regulators resign over financial meltdown

GORDON BROWN carelessly managed to lose two key banking advisers last week. Sir James Crosby, former chief executive of HBOS bank, (which together with its merger partner Lloyds got £37 billion-plus emergency state aid last year) was deputy chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), advising the government on how to solve the mortgage crisis.

But Crosby had personally sacked 'whistleblower' Paul Moore - HBOS's former head of regulatory risks - after Moore told him that the bank was lending recklessly on mortgages and over-reaching itself.

By the time Moore was proved right, Crosby had become one of Brown's top advisers after leaving HBOS with a £9 million 'pension pot'. Crosby has now 'resigned' from the FSA.

Then, Glen Moreno resigned as acting director of UK Financial Investments, which oversees how bank bailout money, paid by our taxes, is distributed. Moreno had been a trustee of Liechtenstein Global Trust, a private bank accused of assisting large-scale tax avoidance.

Why did New Labour trust anyone who runs Liechtenstein banks? The bosses and rulers of Liechtenstein - population 35,000 - make many billions from rich people hiding their wealth from taxation.

Other capitalist governments have acted in panic to stop their taxpayers' money disappearing into this inland 'offshore' tax haven, but Brown gave advisory jobs to one of their biggest helpers and to one of the most bankrupt bankers.

Why were such 'pillars' of capitalist banking advising Brown's government on solving problems that they and their crisis-laden system caused?

Roger Shrives