{"id":14306,"date":"2012-02-27T21:41:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T21:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=14306"},"modified":"2012-02-27T21:47:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T21:47:19","slug":"now-we-know-the-bank-that-doesnt-care-about-codes-of-conduct-is-barclays-no-surprise-there-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/02\/27\/now-we-know-the-bank-that-doesnt-care-about-codes-of-conduct-is-barclays-no-surprise-there-then\/","title":{"rendered":"Now we know the bank that doesn’t care about Codes of Conduct is Barclays. No surprise there then…"},"content":{"rendered":"

This afternoon the FT blogged<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Fifteen banks are\u00a0signatories<\/a>\u00a0to the UK\u2019s Code of Practice on Taxation.<\/p>\n

BANK OF AMERICA\/MERRILL<\/p>\n

BARCLAYS<\/p>\n

CITIGROUP (CITIBANK)<\/p>\n

CREDIT SUISSE<\/p>\n

DEUTSCHE BANK<\/p>\n

GOLDMAN SACHS<\/p>\n

HSBC<\/p>\n

JP MORGAN CHASE<\/p>\n

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP<\/p>\n

MORGAN STANLEY<\/p>\n

NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY<\/p>\n

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND<\/p>\n

SANTANDER<\/p>\n

STANDARD CHARTERED<\/p>\n

UBS<\/p>\n

One of them\u00a0has been caught<\/a>\u00a0trying to dodge more than\u00a0\u00a3500m of tax. HM Treasury has not named the bank. We don\u2019t know who it is. This is curious. Whoever the bank is, the Treasury is taking it seriously enough to change the law retrospectively to close the tax loophole(s).<\/p>\n

(Suggesting, incidentally, that the voluntary Code is a dead letter)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This evening they posted<\/a>:<\/div>\n
\n
Barclays has been blocked from implementing two \u201chighly abusive\u201d tax schemes that could have cost the Treasury \u00a3500m, despite the bank\u2019s commitment to a new code of practice in which it pledged not to engage in tax avoidance.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So the man who gave the inaugural BBC Today programme\u00a0business\u00a0lecture - Bob Diamond - is also willing to sub his business to the tune of half a billion at cost to the state - when it wasn't due the money in question?<\/p>\n

And the time for retribution was over, eh, Bob?<\/p>\n

Let's be clear: we now see exactly what the ethics of a banker are - and they're ugly.<\/p>\n

Bankers are destroying Greece, it's democracy and its people.<\/p>\n

Bankers would happily destroy the UK, its democracy and its people too for the sake of a bonus.<\/p>\n

This is not a minor issue: Barclays has made clear that the stakes here are higher than any of us thought, and that banks will really play very, very dirty indeed.<\/p>\n

That's why we need a\u00a0Courageous State - in the book I explain how and why we need to put feral\u00a0finance\u00a0back in its box. None come more feral than Barclays. But they're only one of many.<\/p>\n

This is why the spirit of #Occupy has to continue.<\/p>\n

It is why\u00a0organisations\u00a0like the\u00a0Tax Justice Network have to succeed. It is why we have to end tax haven abuse.<\/p>\n

If ordinary people are to have a right to decent life then Barclays has to be stopped in its tracks. For good. We can no\u00a0longer\u00a0tolerate such abuse. It's beneath contempt, but it's real. And it has to be stopped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This afternoon the FT blogged: Fifteen banks are\u00a0signatories\u00a0to the UK\u2019s Code of Practice on Taxation. BANK OF AMERICA\/MERRILL BARCLAYS CITIGROUP (CITIBANK) CREDIT SUISSE DEUTSCHE BANK
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barclays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}