RBS boss who headed toxic Global Restructuring Group to face court

Derek Sach, former boss of RBS’s toxic Global Restructuring Group, will give evidence in a case starting next week

The banker at the heart of Royal Bank of Scotland’s restructuring group scandal will be in court as a witness for the first time.

Derek Sach, former boss of RBS’s toxic Global Restructuring Group (GRG), will give evidence in a case starting next week brought by Oliver Morley, 49, a property developer who took out a loan from RBS and is suing it for damaging his business.  He claims that GRG placed him under ‘economic duress’ which led to some of his assets being seized by RBS in 2010 and sold. 

This week, Morley won the right to call to court Sach and Donald Workman, another senior ex-RBS employee.The alleged misconduct occurred in the wake of the financial crisis, when the banking system was at risk of collapse and the Government owned more than 80 per cent of RBS following a £45.5billion taxpayer bailout. 

The Asset Protection Agency (APA), a now-disbanded Government agency, insured more than £280billion of RBS’s bad loans.

Morley wants to prove the Government pressurised GRG to ruin small businesses so it could take their assets and sell them to boost the bank’s profits.

Emails, believed to be from the APA’s chief credit officer Brian Scammell, said the bank would be able to extract more money if it squeezed business customers. 

Mr Justice Kerr, at pre-trial hearing, has allowed Morley to force more documents and emails out of RBS.