It’s the time of year when the board members of large corporations brace themselves for a brief grilling from their shareholders during the annual general meeting. Debt Resistance UK has visited two of these carefully stage-managed events in the last few weeks. We borrowed shares, donned smart clothes and took the opportunity to pose questions to the two largest lenders of LOBO loans to UK local authorities: Barclays and RBS.
PwC, Barclays auditor since 1896 will be replaced by KPMG in 2017, pre-empting EU rules designed to foster competition in the accounting market, forcing companies to switch auditor every 20 years. At the London Borough of Newham, PwC is currently acting as independent ‘arbiter’ or adjudicator of the public interest, in the case of £563 million of Lender Option, Borrower Option (LOBO) loans, mis-sold by banks to Newham council. The leading lender with £250m of LOBOs is Barclays. Next door […]
A heated meeting of the Audit Board at the London Borough of Newham last week provided further evidence that the strategy of Council leaders for dealing with bank loans that have already cost the deprived borough £10m, is to do nothing and hope the problem goes away.
Tower Hamlets resident and green party activist Daniel Lee has raised a formal objection to Lender Option, Borrower Option (LOBO) Loans from Barclays and RBS contained in the councils 2014/15 annual accounts. Debt Resistance UK is providing information and support to local residents wanting to take action against LOBO loan mis-selling and austerity cuts in their Borough, exercising rights under the Audit Commission Act to challenge items of irrational or illegal spending in the Councils annual accounts. DRUK has provided […]