3971 days ago
It was one of those days when the “white pages” of the newspapers led with a City story: the shock departure of Stephen Hester as CEO of RBS. Shares fell by 4% in early trading on the back of the news. From there, the story moved from the financial arena to the political one. Labour said that Chancellor George Osborne had cost taxpayers billions by pushing Hester out. Osborne said that Labour had cost the taxpayer even more billions by overpaying when it bailed RBS out in 2008. It was all usual schoolboy knockabout stuff.
But does it really matter who is at the helm of giant FTSE 100 companies? Clearly it can if the captain of the ship is someone like Hester’s predecessor Fred “the Shred” Goodwin. Fred drove a (with hindsight) reckless acquisition spree and created a culture where RBS simply took on too much risk. But RBS was unusual among FTSE 100 companies
