RBS, Brexit, Pensions and Inheritance Tax

Royal Bank of Scotland secretly tried to profit from struggling businesses, leaked documents show.

The bank bought up assets cheaply from failing businesses it claimed to be helping, the confidential files reveal. Staff could boost their bonuses by finding firms which could be squeezed in what it called a ‘dash for cash’. RBS said it had let some small business customers down in the past but denied it deliberately caused them to fail. The cache of documents, passed by a whistleblower to BuzzFeed News and BBC Newsnight, support controversial allegations in a report three years ago by the Government’s then entrepreneur in residence Lawrence Tomlinson. Brexit The leader of Britain’s biggest business group has warned Theresa May that she risks ‘closing the door’ on an open economy with her immigration clampdown and Brexit policy. Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, issued the stark message in an interview with The Times as the Government climbed down on its plan to name businesses thought to be relying too heavily on foreign workers.