Jim Armitage: Fund City watchdogs or watch whistleblowers walk away
Yet again, this week a senior whistleblower with serious allegations of corruption in the City comes knocking at the Evening Standard’s door.
His allegations involve one of the biggest investment banks and a former star of private equity.
And, yet again, he comes to the media because he claims the Financial Conduct Authority shooed him away, saying his case wasn’t big enough.
Like certain employees at Barclays, the regulator likes to focus on elephant deals.
Many whistleblowers have emerged through the media since the financial crisis.
In my experience, they always do so after being brushed off by the regulators.
While this makes the financial pages more interesting, it doesn’t bode well for the prosecution of white-collar crime.
Some days it feels like we should make a choice: either fund the FCA, the City of London Police and the Serious Fraud Office properly, as if London was a world-leading financial centre, or just outsource the whole thing to the FBI.
Sepp Blatter would doubtless disagree.
