Treasury Select Committee Research Articles

Rhetorical strategies of legitimation in the professional field of banking

AbstractIn this study, we analyse the rhetorical strategies of legitimation used by professionals when their conduct is exposed as wrong. Focusing on banking as a professional field and the conduct of bankers during the 2007–8 global financial crisis we ask two questions: what rhetorical strategies did senior bankers use to justify their actions and defend the legitimacy of their profession in the face of widespread public disapproval of banking practices? How did bankers use their professional field to legitimize their behaviour? To answer these questions, we analyse the justificatory rhetoric used by UK banking executives during the Treasury Select Committee hearings following the crisis. Drawing on our analysis we developed a typology of rhetorical strategies of legitimation used by the bankers, based in part on the concept of neutralization techniques. We argue that bankers, with some exceptions, drew largely on intra-field rhetoric, deeply embedded in institutionalized practices, to justify their behaviour and legitimize their profession. The lack of more convincing inter-field rhetoric only accentuated the mismatch between the moral universe of the bank executive and that of the traditional citizen, voter, and taxpayer.

The Development of the Treasury Select Committee 1995–2015

The Select Committees of the House of Commons have, in the past, been perceived as a parliamentary backwater, supporting debate but lacking real influence in the Chamber. Over the course of the past two decades, however, some Select Committees have distinguished themselves as more than authors of advisory reports. The Treasury Select Committee (Treasury Committee) has been at the forefront of this development. The article follows the Treasury Committee’s progress from an awkward and rarely heard backbench Committee, moving beyond its original remit to become a high-profile public platform where Government, quangos and even the private industry are scrutinised and brought to account on their actions.

The future of Solvency II in the UK: Treasury Select Committee debrief and working party update ‐ Abstract of the Edinburgh and London Discussion

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Who saw it coming? The UK’s great financial crisis

AbstractWho foresaw the UK banking crisis? This paper addresses this issue through detailed empirical work on the content of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speeches, Bank of EnglandFinancial Stability Reports, Financial Service Authority reports and speeches by Bank of England officials, editorials in theTimesandFinancial Times, bank annual reports and financial statements, credit rating reports, share price movements, Parliamentary questions, Treasury select committee reports and the output of academic economists. We find that few people inside or outside government recognised the existence of significant financial vulnerabilities in the financial system in the years prior to the collapse of Northern Rock in September 2007. We use the conceptual lenses of individual, institutional and paradigmatic pathologies to provide explanations for this failure to detect looming crisis conditions. We argue ultimately that regulators and commentators were blinded by faith in market forces and the risk-tempering properties of securitisation.

Re-storying bankers: historical antecedents of banker bashing in Britain and America

Whittle and Mueller's discursive psychological analysis of banker storying during the recent British Treasury Select Committee hearings is the latest twist in the financial crisis storytelling genre. Although Whittle and Mueller focus on storytellers' use of classically derived story tropes, they otherwise pay scant attention to how history enters into stories in which bankers are blamed for economic turmoil. The current paper moves beyond their work by showing how culturally transmitted historical narratives provide potent discursive resources for banker bashers. Focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, our examples are the American Catholic priest-cum-broadcaster Charles Coughlin and the British fascist Oswald Mosley. Each drew their banker stories from content-laden, culturally supplied master narratives: traditional American populism and British declinism, respectively. Studying the emplotment of bankers within a nation's deep-seated historical storylines, we argue, is the key to factoring history back into the banker storytelling debate.

The vulnerability of Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs to penetration by criminal actors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to consider whether HM Revenue & Customs systems are vulnerable to penetration by organized criminals.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a review of available material published in hard copy and on the internet.FindingsThe paper finds that HM Revenue & Customs systems are vulnerable to penetration by organized criminals in a number of ways. Theft by employees, fraud perpetrated by external criminals and money laundering are particular vulnerabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is an invite to the House of Commons Public Accounts or Treasury Select Committee to investigate HM Revenue & Customs' vulnerability to penetration by organized criminals.Social implicationsThe paper identifies the need to reduce monies lost by HM Treasury.Originality/valueThis is the first study, to the author's knowledge, of a holistic approach to the issue of HM Revenue & Customs systems' vulnerablity to penetration by organized criminals.

The ‘Credit Crunch’ from a Critical Rationalist Perspective

Uses Sir Karl Popper’s philosophy of critical rationalism to examine the discussion of the UK ‘credit crunch’ as presented by the public record of the UK House of Commons Treasury Select Committee’s investigation. Identifies various philosophical doctrines that acted to shape that investigation and the testimony presented before it. Presents those doctrines as prejudicial to the advancement of knowledge, learning and rationality. Concludes that the philosophy of critical rationalism is relevant to the problems of modern society.

Gendered organizations and women's career progression in the UK financial services sector

This article discusses the main findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's 2009 inquiry into unequal pay and sex discrimination in the financial services sector and the Treasury Select Committee's 2010 report ‘Women in the City’, which examined the under-representation of women directors, with reference to literature on organizational culture and women's career progression. The article considers whether a masculine workplace culture exists in the financial sector (and more generally) and what effect it can have on women's career choices and opportunities for promotion. Under-representation occurs because many women are either choosing not to apply for directorships of FTSE 100 companies or being overlooked. The article considers the current legal framework in relation to sex discrimination and flexible working and whether the changes made by the Equality Act 2010 go far enough. Policy options to improve the current situation are considered, with particular focus on the possibility of quotas for women directors and other measures to address under-representation.

THE TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE: ITS REACH AND ITS ROLE IN THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

The Treasury Select Committee's role has evolved in recent years. Since the banking crisis it has undertaken important work in holding government bodies to account and in helping to influence the policy agenda.

The Cost of Anchoring on Credit-Card Minimum Repayments

About three quarters of credit card accounts attract interest charges. In the US, credit card debt is $951.7 billion of a total of $2,539.7 billion of consumer credit. In the UK, credit card debt is £55.1 billion of £174.4 billion of consumer credit. The 2005 US Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act and the 2003 UK Treasury Select Committee's report require lenders to collect a minimum payment of at least the interest accrued each month. Thus people are protected from the effects of compounding interest. But including minimum payment information has an unintended negative effect, because minimum payments act as psychological anchors.

Irresponsible Lending? A Case Study of a U.K. Credit Industry Reform Initiative

There are major concerns about the level of personal borrowing, particularly sourced from credit cards. This paper charts the progress of an initiative to create a Responsible Lending Index (RLI) for the credit industry. The RLI proposed to voluntarily benchmark lending standards and promote best practice within the credit industry by involving suppliers of credit, customer representatives and regulators. However, despite initial support from some banks, consumer bodies and the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, it failed to gain sufficient support from financial institutions in its original format. The primary reasons for this were related to the complexity of building such a robust index and the banks trade body’s fear of exposing its members to public scrutiny. A revised alternative, the Responsible Lending Initiative, was proposed which took into account these concerns. However, the Association of Payment Clearing Service (APACS), the trade body of the credit industry, then effectively destroyed the proposal. This article describes an attempt to address the challenges in the credit card industry with the initiation of the RLI, reflected in stakeholder discourse and in the context of a wider concern expressed by the involved stakeholders in terms of the need for greater responsibility in the banking industry’s lending practices.

The Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee during the Thatcher Administration

The Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee during the Thatcher Administration

The Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee During the Thatcher Administration

The Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee During the Thatcher Administration

Radical plan for investment trust regulation

The paper is about HM Treasury’s consultation on the future of investment trusts regulation. The consultation follows the Treasury Select Committee’s recommendation in 2003 that investment trusts should be regulated by FSA following the collapse of a number of split capital investment trusts. The paper argues that changes made since 2003, to the Listing Rules and the Conduct of Business Rules and the introduction of the AITC Code of Corporate Governance render further structural change unnecessary. The paper also argues that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) should be extended so as to allow thrid party access by complaints who claim to have suffered loss as a result of having relied on a misleading financial promotion, no matter how they eventually purchased the investment.

The Penrose Report. A Discussion Meeting

The Report of the Equitable Life Enquiry, by The Right Honourable Lord Penrose, was delivered to Treasury Ministers on 23 December 2003, and was published on 8 March 2004 by The Stationary Office (also at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk).Members were encouraged to read the report in advance of the meeting, in particular Chapters 19 and 20; Lord Penrose's evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on 16 March 2004; and the statement issued jointly by the Presidents of the Faculty of Actuaries and the Institute of Actuaries, which appeared on page 4 of the April 2004 copy of The Actuary.

The Politics of Needs Assessment: The Treasury Select Committee and the Barnett Formula

Parliamentarians’ interest in Scottish public expenditure has been rising since 1987, when the electoral results left the Conservatives vulnerable in Scotland. Southern English MPs described the Scottish Office budget as a ‘slush fund’, and argued that Scots were being ‘force-fed’ with public expenditure. This interest has deepened as a direct result of the public debate over devolution (Midwinter, 1989). Although the author focuses here on developments in Scotland, many of the issues are relevant to devolution proposals in Wales, Northern Ireland and perhaps the English regions also.

Commons is worried about private finance for NHS New group will strengthen patient involvement in NHS research Special conference will consider future of general practice Transition to new grade must be completed in a year

# Commons is worried about private finance for NHS {#article-title-2} The all-party House of Commons Treasury select committee has questioned the suitability of the government's private finance initiative (PFI) for health projects. Under the initiative, private finance is raised for large public capital projects, including new hospitals. The select committee report predates the plan for Britain's first £170m PFI hospital to be built from scratch at Norwich (13 April, p 929). The treasury committee is concerned that those aspects of PFI projects which have a lucrative return will attract investment and would have to be linked to substantial management contracts. The ability of NHS trusts to plan the provision of services could be lost. While the official policy is that clinical services should not be provided by private finance, the committee heard that the PFI was forcing a false split between clinical and non-clinical services—for example, in the position of the domestic housekeeper hitherto a key member of the clinical team. The committee is concerned that the PFI should not introduce arbitrary demarcations in hospital management. In written evidence to the committee the BMA warns that while the PFI will not result in the employment of clinicians by private companies, some of them will be supplying clinical services for profit. They may be tempted to cut costs by reducing and putting financial pressure on clinical decisions, leading to ethical problems for doctors. The BMA states that the greatest instinctive objection to private finance in the NHS is that …