Paul Moore, changing the face of the financial world
In 2005, Paul told the board of HBOS of his concerns that a fierce sales culture was leading to unnecessary risk and putting the bank in serious danger. Rather than listen to his warnings, the board chose to sack Paul and carry on regardless. The bank failed spectacularly shortly after, fundamentally because of the very concerns that Paul had raised. Paul went on to deliver valuable written evidence to parliament while the then CEO, James Crosby, was stripped of his knighthood and memorably excoriated on Newsnight, with Paxman introducing him as “the prominent incompetent”.
In almost seven years, we were the only company to have offered him a job after he blew the whistle, despite his obvious expertise and ethical grounding. Our intention has always been to provide a better alternative to banking, and having someone with Paul’s knowledge and beliefs in the early stages of Assetz Capital has proven extremely useful in achieving this goal.
For us, Paul’s remit at Assetz Capital was very clear. We are an alternative to all the bad things associated with banking. We are transparent. We do business ethically – this applies to both borrowers and lenders. We want everyone to benefit in some way. We’re a better way of doing banking. This defined Paul, so he instilled it across the business from day one – ensuring all of our staff knew that this must be the way Assetz Capital is run, not just for the first year, but forever.
Having set us in good stead, his initial two-year project at Assetz Capital has now come to an end and his priority is to continue to reform the wider financial industry. His work in encouraging whistleblowers continues, and he’s midway through a book that will ruffle some feathers in the banking industry – “Crash! Bank! Wallop! The Memoirs of the HBOS Whistleblower” – which charts the downfall of HBOS and promises to be an enlightening read.
We look forward to our signed edition! The team wants to thank Paul for all of his insight, wisdom and guidance.
From all at Assetz Capital
- September 23, 2014