Government as shareowner

Here's a great line from a journo mate of mine writing in Financial News (you'll need a sub to read the whole thing) that hammers home the point about the failure of shareholders as owners -

"The Government achieved the ousting of RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, who took advantage of lax market conditions to purchase Dutch bank ABN Amro at the top of the market. Despite his mistake, shareholders had failed to achieve Goodwin’s ousting, despite consistently grumbling about the deal. You cannot get a better example of a Government forcing a solution on a market that cannot achieve results on its own."

And here's a bit of commentary from the TUC in the same territory -

In RBS at least, the Government is now the majority owner, and in other banks it will be by far the biggest shareholder. It now has major responsibilities as an owner that cannot be passed to an arms-length body. The lack of proper control by the owners of banks - shareholders and investment funds - has been a key cause of the crisis.

The banks today have received as much cash as the annual defence budget. Tax payers will want to see big changes in return. It is not enough to limit cash boardroom bonuses for a year and accept a few ritual resignations. There cannot be big pay-offs for those who go, as was the case with Northern Rock. There needs to be a wholesale review of bonuses and pay throughout the upper levels of these banks, not just a year long ban on boardroom cash bonuses.