Brown promises more responsible banks
The prime minister said the government would take legal action to recover pension payments made to chief executives of failed banks.
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Saturday, 28, Feb 2009 10:08
Prime minister Gordon Brown has said the government is working towards creating a new culture of "banking responsibility".
Speaking to the Labour National Policy Forum in Bristol, Mr Brown said banks were being cleaned up of "unacceptable" and "indefensible" policies in order to help rebuild a stable financial system.
During the speech, he reiterated that the government would take legal action to halt pension payments to dismissed bank executives.
The announcement comes in the midst of increasing public scrutiny of the £16 million pension promised to former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Sir Fred Goodwin.
"Many of the bank executives who got banks into this mess have now left their jobs... we are exploring all the legal action necessary to recover pension payments from people who received too much," he stated.
The prime minister said the government was working on creating an economy in which banks would return to being servants of the public rather than just "serving themselves".
During the meeting of Labour activists, Mr Brown is also expected to speak on the controversial sale of a stake in Royal Mail to the private sector which has encountered fierce opposition within members of the Labour party.