SUMMIT: Protecting Consumer Protections; for the sake of society, and The City

The 2007–08 banking crisis showed the cost of getting this wrong: reckless growth, failed oversight, catastrophic financial carnage and human suffering that was as severe as it was widespread. Northern Rock collapsed. RBS, once steady, became the world’s biggest bank on paper—hiding toxic debt that required a government rescue. The result: mass job losses, home repossessions, catastrophic consumer detriment, widespread reputational damage to the City, years of austerity and the flat-lining of economic growth ever since. 

The Global Financial Crisis wasn’t inevitable. It was the product of weakened regulation and a culture that prized short-term gain over long-term stability. The lesson was clear: strong oversight protects both the public and the City’s long-term reputation; and that lax regulation that forgets the lessons of the past was risky and damaging to all.  

The RBS story, and the catastrophic regulatory failure that surrounds it, even when leniently and generously described by the failed regulator that presided at the time is truly shocking in its scale and severity. The RBS collapse, brought about by Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin is central to our event because the behaviours that led to the downfall of this once reputable institution – ultimately forcing it into state ownership and rebranding as NatWest – are at the heart of the issues we are addressing now. 

For those seeking a vivid and creative exploration of this history, the play Make It Happen – starring Brian Cox, written by James Graham and directed by Andrew Panton – offers a compelling lens. Drawing on Adam Smith’s two seminal works, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it explores the tension between free markets and moral responsibility – a tension Smith himself understood deeply. 

The play brilliantly brings this tension to life, showing how unconstrained markets, when driven purely by greed and accompanied by inevitable deregulatory tendencies, become toxic. More importantly, it reveals that the forces which caused the collapse of RBS, Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers and the global financial system as a whole are not relics of the past – they are still with us today. 

Furthermore, it is clear that there is great need for another great creative endeavour to be undertaken, be that a play or a documentary, to tell the story of what happened after RBS collapsed, in relation to the ‘dark arts’ of RBS’ Global Restructuring Group’ and related matters such as The Bank Signature Forgeries Campaign, the failure of the Business Banking Resolution Service, the Ulster Bank scandal and much, much more. 

The Warning Signs Are Back

We are now seeing the risk of a return to deregulation under the banner of “regulate for growth”—a strategy that history shows ends badly; not just in the UK but in the USA too. Public polling consistently reveals what people want: secure finances, trustworthy institutions, and fair treatment. Yet policy momentum risks moving in the opposite direction, to a place where we believe the City may be trusted even less, and will be less profitable in all but the very short term.

The validated, official data in Violation Tracker UK tells a stark story:

• There has been over £4.5 billion in financial services penalties—more than any other UK sector, despite financial services being the most trust-dependent industry of them all. 
• Some major financial institutions repeatedly violate rules, regulations and laws through malpractice, malfeasance, mis-selling and even outright fraud. They display recidivist tendencies and seem to treat fines as a business expense.
• There is rarely any meaningful personal consequence for the senior executives responsible, despite the introduction of the Senior Manager Certification Regime which had been lauded as the regulatory reform necessary to create the missing accountability that precipitated the Global Financial Crisis.

In short, weak enforcement sends the wrong signal: that misconduct pays; and that without individual accountability, we are in effect condoning the inexcusable, thereby inviting malpractice to reoccur.  

When consumer protections weaken:

• Scams rise, people suffer and redress options evaporate away.
• Regulators get swamped by the fallout, often struggling to cope because of their own limitations and conflicting priorities, as the APPG’s Report on the Financial Conduct Authority showed.
• Public trust erodes, leading people to save, invest, and insure less, which is obviously the opposite of what those interested in the commercial success of the sector want.  
• The City’s international standing suffers; and so too does its investability.

The harm is systemic: unhealthy growth benefits a small elite while costs and risks are borne by households, communities, and—ultimately—the taxpayer.

This summit is ‘the waving of a big red flag’ to warn of the potential dangers ahead and to galvanise support for a simple idea: that we stop and think long and hard about potential adverse consequences of a deregulatory agenda. We want to unite citizens, industry leaders, regulators, academics, civil society and policymakers to share thoughts and ideas on where we are now, how we got here and where we should move safely onto. 

Our Summit in Parliament on 13th November is a call for good growth; not rash and reckless growth:

• Good growth that raises living standards and strengthens the City’s credibility.
• Good growth that ensures markets work for the real economy in the short, medium and long term, not just the financial economy in the short term.
• Good growth built on the provision of sensible solutions and services from a sector that is struggling to re-connect with its primary purpose – to serve.

The collapse in trust in our institutions, including the collapse in trust brought about by the failure of governance in some of our arms-length bodies, demonstrated so powerfully by the ITV drama Alan Bates v The Post Office, will inevitably lead to a growing sense of frustration, distrust and perhaps even anger within the public at large. 

From Talk to Action

The summit will conclude with the initiation of an open letter, to be co-created by participants that wish to engage further, setting out a call for practical, politically viable reforms to:

1. Deal with the challenges of ‘the Unholy Trinity’ namely: The Revolving Door Problem, Conflicts of Interest and Regulatory Capture.
2. Strengthen enforcement – making individual accountability real, as originally intended in the post-crisis reforms.
3. Protect the independence of consumer redress bodies, as originally intended, and for good reason.
4. Embed consumer protection as a driver of sustainable market confidence, because we should be seeking healthy, sustainable growth; not short-term growth that carries with it the almost-inevitable risk of long-term regret.

And the open letter will point to a new APPG report that explains the evidence base that challenges the wisdom of the ‘de/regulate for growth’ agenda. 

Following the main session, from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, there will be networking, drinks, and refreshments—giving participants the opportunity to continue discussions, build alliances, and deliberate the best next steps for reform.

Strong consumer protections are not anti-growth—they are pro-City, pro-market, and pro-trust. The cost of inaction is borne by the public; the benefits of action are shared by all.

The time to act is now: before the regulatory amnesia around the Global Financial Crisis crystallises; before the gap between financial sector interests and public needs becomes an unbridgeable chasm; and before we go past the point of no return – not just in financial services, but also beyond.