City executive who racked up £43,000 in unpaid train tickets banned from financial industry - Makes what is going on in factoring even more......

Jonathan Burrows, who is thought to have carried out the ruse despite earning £1 million a year, was banned by regulators for 'not being fit and proper' 

 The banker still got away without going to jail

 Tracey McDermott, FCA director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "Burrows held a senior position within the financial services industry. His actions fell short of the standards we expect.

"Approved persons must act with honesty and integrity at all times and, where they do not, we will take action."

He was eventually caught in November last year by a ticket inspector standing next to the barriers and was able to pay the £42,550 in dodged fares and £450 in legal costs within three days as part of an out-of-court settlement with rail firm Southeastern.

The FCA said Mr Burrows admitted in an interview to evading his train fare on a number of occasions and had done so in the knowledge he had been breaking the law.

He had also admitted that he did not disclose his behaviour to his employer.

This makes the present situation in asset based lending laugherable as there is clear evidence of systematic fraud by a number of factoring companies with a member of staff at Close Brothers admitting that the only reason that Close apply fees is to defraud HMRC.

Metro Bank needs to carry out a full investigation of the historical behaviour of their factoring division urgently

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-worst-fare-dodger-city-4814472

Factoring and Invoice Finance stagnate in 2014 in the key SME sector - As fear of hidden costs and forced insolvencies scare companies away!

It has been another difficult year for the factoring industry showing very little growth in terms of client numbers with the 6,669 new clients taken on in the first nine months of the year being almost completely negated by the 6,397 lost in the same period.

The statistics provided by ABFA show that the 43,708 companies using factoring and invoice discounting as at the end of September were using £19.3 billion of funding which was an increase of 12% on the previous year’s funding levels, with the increase only seen in large users.  So that the wonder funder for SME's that ABFA miss led the Treasury Select committee has been shunned due to the high level of abuse in this unregulated finance industry.

With over eighty percent of the number of companies turning over £5m or less and their numbers actually using factoring declined by over 100 businesses (Less companies to be forced to be closed by unscrupulous factoring companies). 

700 companies turning over in excess of £50m pa meaning that less than 2% of the total number of companies was responsible for nearly forty percent of the total funding thus making the bragging of ABFA meaningless.

Leaving published statistics aside almost all factoring insiders are complaining about the lack of activity in the market and have done so for most of the year.  With most of the factoring companies and brokers feeling the pinch.  The good news here is the hated insolvency practitioners are finding it hard to pay their lavish life styles and school fees.
 
Factoring companies continue to rip their clients off forcing them to sign contracts with heads the factoring company wins and tails the client loses with debentures, personal guarantees and charges on their clients house (nice little earner - unless your the client).

Factoring brokers are seeing a collapse of the market with enquiries down by 30%and Insolvency practitioners seeing their business vapourise in front of their eyes due to few hostile liquidations.

Pulse Cashflow Finance Ltd - The factoring company that should carry a Government Health Warning

Pulse - A factoring company that is linked to horror story after horror story in the factoring industry - they deal with the worst in insolvency practitioners and the law firms they use are no more than fraudsters in suits.

How do they get away with it?  Factoring is unregulated, the insolvency industry is rogues charter for some and the law firms that revel in the misery they create - We are doing what our clients instructed - sickening!





Think long and hard before you use this lot! 



If you have had the misfortune to have dealt with Pulse please email RABF at Pulse@rabf.org.uk

Show some respect to Parliament and to the people who give you your livelyhoods in factoring

The influential House of Commons Treasury select committee has recently reprimanded the part-taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland for being economical with the truth when giving evidence. 
The industries trade body the Asset Based Finance Association was ridiculed when it submitted evidence to the Treasury Select committee. 

 

Martin Morrin the Chairman of ABFA was left looking a rather pathetic figure with no concept what was going on the asset based finance industry.

Andrew Tyrie, the committee’s chairman, in his letter to Derek Sach, of the bank’s Global Restructuring Group – regarded by some small businesses as the hit squad – pointed out that it appeared the bank had known of the concerns of one small businessman, yet in its evidence and its follow-up letter, failed to mention this apparent fact.

Whatever the truth or otherwise of the RBS/select committee row, the reality is that this is not a side issue. It is becoming clear that a number of senior regulators and business people appear to treat parliamentary select committees and inquiries with little short of contempt.

In many ways the standard was set by the now dissolved FSA, but senior bankers too more or less share this attitude, that the committee is a waste of time. Many may recall Bob Diamond, late of Barclays Bank, suggesting that we put the banking crisis behind us and move on.

Apart from this breathtaking arrogance, it is important to remind those people and their chorus of supporters that Britain is a parliamentary democracy, that select committees act on behalf of parliament and must be accorded the full respect and co-operation that they would give, for example, a court of law.

In our system parliament is supreme, and anyone treating a lawfully appointed parliamentary committee with contempt, whether in the veracity of their evidence or in their general demeanour, should be brought before the bar and charged.

Bankers or others giving evidence before a US senate committee would face contempt charges if in many ways they behaved in the manner in which our regulators and senior business people seem to do before the UK parliament.

Many of us are horrified that the factoring industry believes that it is not answerable to any institution, not the Treasury, nor parliament.

We will put this right!

Claim is to be brought against SME Asset Based Finance (now Metro SME) - Which is owned by Metro Bank

An administrator is proposing to bring legal proceeding under sections 238 (transactions at an under value) and 239 (preferences) of the insolvency ACT 1986 to recover £169,724.23 plus interest of approximately £82,000 against SME Asset Based Finance Ltd which is wholly owned by Metro Bank. 

This is in respect of payments made to SME by a company under a loan agreement to settle the liabilities of previous failed companies.  The administrator considers the payments were made at a time when the company was insolvent and that there was no consideration for payment.

Metro Bank, broadened its offering to business customers through the acquisition of SME Invoice Finance Limited (“SME”), which specialises in invoice discounting and factoring and cash-flow funding for businesses.

This is an interest case for a variety of reasons that RABF is unable to fully reveal the extent of what has gone on here, especially with the other companies referred too in the administrators report.

We believe this is the tip of the iceberg – If you have had your company put into insolvency by SME we strongly urge you to contact RABF at SME@rabf.org.uk

P & A Partnership of Sheffield sued for more than £1.2M fee

P & A Partnership is being sued for more than £1.2M for allegedly failing to justify its fees by Grant Thornton http://www.grant-thornton.co.uk/.

Employees at P & A Partnership have been hit with an order for 'misfeasance or breach of fiduciary duty' over the administration and liquidation of a Nottingham company.

 
 Jeremy Priestley, managing partner of P&A

P & A were replaced by Grant Thornton and after reviewing the case it claims that the fees 'were not justified’.  It has now launched legal proceedings on behalf of creditors.

Grant Thornton wants to recover £918,631 from the administration and £283,000 fees from the liquidation.

This comes after BIS launched an investigation into the firm.

RABF has a number of other worrying cases involving P & A Partnership.

P & A Partnership's name crops up as often as SFP and Harrisons - The cases involving all three are harrowing to read.

If you require more information contact PAPartnership@rabf.org.uk

Why Aren't More Dishonest Bankers In Jail? Those criminals in factoring we will get you - You are not too big to spend time in jail!

Perhaps the most striking feature of the global financial crisis has been that no top banking executive has been successfully prosecuted for their role in bringing it about in the first place.

 The period covered by the statute of limitations is running out so it is conceivable none ever will. 

 

Yet the word 'fraud' appears 157 times in the final report of the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. 

So why are we not seeing prosecutions and prison terms, as in previous financial scandals? Guests include a former prosecutor, a law professor, an economist and a recently-retired US Senator.

Please listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cr1jh

Does this sound familiar about factoring companies that close good solvent companies for greed

Quotes  from the Panorma program -  From Jon Pain, Stephen Pegge and Christ Sullivan - they all lied and were not bothered as they above the law - THERE MUST BE JUSTICE!


WE CAN ONLY DREAM!

Jon Pain (RBS) “The whole purpose of GRG is to help customers return to financial health…..”

Stephen Pegge (Lloyds) “our goal is to support businesses (you know) small and medium sized businesses are really important to us….”

Jon Pain (RBS) “(But) I would in no shape or form condone any inappropriate behaviour by anybody acting on behalf of RBS – that’s not part of our agenda in supporting customers.”

Christ Sullivan (RBS) to Andrew Tyrie re GRG “It is absolutely not a profit centre!”

Vince Cable (BIS) “Well of course I’m very alarmed because good companies appear to have been put at risk or in some cases destroyed by banks behaviour…..”

Ross Finch (Lloyds victims) re his meeting with an exec of Cerberus who Lloyds sold his loan to “When I expressed disbelief about their behaviour, um, he said, “what you’ve got to understand is I am a prick” – which I couldn’t believe he would say such a thing!”

Show's how pathetic RBS is 'wanted critic Tomlinson's mortgage back'!

A businessman who wrote a government report that criticised RBS has been told he can no longer remain a customer of the bank, Panorama has learned.

In the 2013 report, Lawrence Tomlinson accused RBS of systematically wrecking viable businesses.
And in 2014, RBS deputy chief executive Chris Sullivan told him he would have to take his mortgage, business and personal accounts to another bank.


Unless your Lawrence Tomlinson or an SME that wants to survive

But RBS said the decision had nothing to do with the critical report.

Mr Tomlinson's report accused RBS of using questionable property valuations to artificially downgrade viable businesses.

He said the businesses had then been moved to the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG), which had charged extra interest and fees.

RBS denied GRG had treated customers unfairly. It commissioned its own inquiry, which rejected the main allegations in Mr Tomlinson's report.

'Broken down' But last June Mr Sullivan sent an email to Mr Tomlinson telling him to move his mortgage and all his bank accounts.

It said: "In view of your longstanding dissatisfaction with the bank, we have concluded that the required trust between you and the bank has irretrievably broken down. 

Continue reading and watch interview: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30146247

Sweeney 'RBS Invoice Finance' Todd - No one is going to disagree!

Mark Carney Governor of the Bank of England says "untenable to argue that problem is a few bad apples. It is the barrels in which they are stored"

The Bank of England tweeted Carney's sentiments to its 120,000 or so Twitter followers to make sure as many as possible heard. Here it is - 

"Bank of England        ✔ @bankofengland Follow

#FinancialStabilityBoard’s Carney says untenable to argue that problem is a few bad apples. It is the barrels in which they are stored"

Is it time to stop bashing factoring companies? Have the crooks already been knocked out of the ring? Is RABF just hindering the new saintly asset based lenders? As they clean up after the few bad apples who spoiled it for everyone else? Of course not!!! 

 The Treasury minister responsible for the City of London said in July 2014:

"I think there's quite a long way to go to really change the culture.... I think we are still going to see a lot of cringeworthy announcements."

A report on "The Culture of British Retail Banking" in November 2014 by the Cass Business School and the think tank New City Agenda (founded by cross-party luminaries) stated banking including asset based lending suffers from:

"A toxic culture decades in the making [that] will take a generation to clean up."

This same report refers to an ethics study done in June 2013, several years after the banking crash, showing the banks and assset based lenders are still swimming in a red sea of bad ethics.So much for ABFA's Ombusdman service!