News that Andrew Bailey – former head of the Financial Conduct Authority – has been handed the job of Governor of the Bank of England is unlikely to sit well with scores of British expats, ‘victims’ of the collapse of foreign exchange company Premier FX which had been acting ‘outside the law’ in plain sight of regulatory authorities for years before its founder ‘dropped dead on the operating table’ in Lisbon, revealing a terrible trail of deception (click here).
Certainly Bailey’s appointment – by outgoing Conservative Chancellor Sajid Javid – has ruffled feathers in UK.
Campaigning businesswoman Gina Miller – the woman who challenged the British government’s attempt to push Brexit through without a parliamentary majority – is heading a group that is calling for a review of Javid’s decision.
At a meeting to launch the group’s report: ‘Asleep at the Wheel’, Mrs Miller said that with Bailey at the helm “the FCA has been characterised by a toxic cocktail of negligence, incompetence and indifference to the needs of ordinary depositors, investors and pensioners.
“On his watch, tens of thousands of Britons have lost money – in many cases losing their life savings which has devastated their lives, families and business.”
Mrs Miller outlined a number of scandals – none of them touching the Algarve. But the Premier FX closure cut a swathe through lives on the coastline, wiping out savings of over €10 million and to date not one customer here appears to have managed to recover their lost funds.
Said the Guardian on Sunday, a review of Andrew Bailey’s appointment will be one of the first tasks of the cross-party Treasury committee, due to be officially appointed today (Monday).
Unless things change, however, Mr Bailey is due to take up his new post on March 16 when current governor Mark Carney finally stands down after seven years.
One of the many victims of the collapse of Premier FX – found to have been operating illegally in plain sight of regulators for years – told us: “Andrew Bailey’s stewardship of the FCA is exactly what the big bankers ordered: minimum fines and low interference.They don’t care about consumers and neither did he. He is a great friend of the banking community and they chose him as Governor. He is the bankers’ Magician, a master of deflection for the big financial institutions whose greed and selfishness are out of control.
“The Whistleblowers & Victims of the financial crimes these bankers engage in are devastated and destroyed. A great victory for the City & bad for the country”, the source concluded.
