Monday, February 19, 2018

Deeper scandal at Carillion was Pension Regulator's inaction

Regulator had front-row seat but failed to use powers to intervene before firm went bust

Frank Field is right to castigate the directors of Carillion for being “contemptuous” of their obligations to the company’s pensioners. The picture of what happened in the pre-crash years is now reasonably clear: the directors, even as they were raising the dividend to shareholders year after year, made a corporate plea of poverty when talking to the pension trustees. The decision-making and the skewing of priorities were appalling.

The deeper scandal, however, may be the fact that the Pensions Regulator had a front-row seat at the developing debacle and didn’t once deploy its formal powers of intervention. The regulator’s officials attended meetings between the company and the pension trustees but were not shocked into formal action until Carillion went bust, by which time there was no money left.

Continue reading...

from Mergers and acquisitions | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2o98Azy

No comments:

Post a Comment