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2 Big Stories

Kingman steps down from UKFI

As the Press Association reports:

The company responsible for the taxpayer’s stakes in ailing banks saw a leadership shake-up as chief executive John Kingman announced plans to step down. Mr Kingman, who has led UK Financial Investments (UKFI) since it was formed last November, will step down from the £143,000 post in “due course” for a career in the private sector.

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable is worried by this upheaval at the very top of UKFI:

UKFI is one of Britain’s most powerful bodies and these changes at the top come at a very sensitive time. What is worrying about these changes is that Mr Kingman is leaving at a time when it’s clear the Government hasn’t really got a grip on the banks.

“This is the one person within the Treasury who knew where all the skeletons are buried and what’s going on. His departure at this time will leave a massive hole.”

Meanwhile in other Vince-related, recession-related news, our shadow chancellor has once again called for the big banks to be broken up for posing too great a risk to the taxpayer:

He criticised the combination of ordinary banking, such as business lending and mortgage payments, and so-called casino banking.

“These two things should not co-exist in the same institution,” he said. “It is highly unstable. It means the British taxpayer is underwriting very dangerous high-risk activities, so for that reason alone they should be split up. In addition the European Commission has made the case that there is now far too little competition.”

He said increasingly concentrated ownership did not give the consumer a good deal. “It is dangerous in giving excessive market power and before these banks are returned to private ownership they should be split up,” the Lib Dem MP said. “This may mean reopening, for example, the whole issue of the Lloyds/Royal Bank of Scotland merger and possibly reversing it.”

Lib Dem celebrity news round-up