Old Lady won't be keen on President Kerry

[Feanorcurufinwe]

If John Kerry, the Democrat from Massachussetts, gets to the White House this November, they won't be cheering his victory in Threadneedle Street. He may be riding high in the US presidential race today, but Kerry first came to Britain's attention as the senator who accused the Bank of England of turning a blind eye to fraud at BCCI. Kerry led the Senate's investigation into BCCI's multibillion-dollar crash, and here's what he had to say: 'The Bank of England delayed unconscionably in closing BCCI, and millions of investors were hurt... It was negligent and costly... I'm saying very directly that the Bank of England had sufficient information in front of it to close BCCI 15 months earlier than it did.'

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Which can hardly be comforting to the Bank as it seeks to defend itself against a huge compensation action brought by BCCI's victims at the High Court in London. This began last month and will still be going on beyond Kerry's likely endorsement as Democrat candidate, and even, probably, beyond his showdown with George W Bush.

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Kerry spent almost two years leading the powerful Foreign Relations Sub-committee's investigation of the meltdown, memorably describing BCCI's activities as 'a panoply of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers'. He damned the Bank in his 800-page report, as well as Price Waterhouse, BCCI's auditor.

Some commentators suggest Kerry 'went easy' at the time on Clark Clifford, a prominent Democrat and former US Defence Secretary with ties to BCCI. On the other hand, one of the (unheeded) recommendations he made in his report - that US authorities actively pursue evidence that BCCI was being used to fund an incipient Pakistani nuclear programme - now seems prescient, given recent revelations about Pakistan's role in nuclear proliferation. Kerry plans to make a crackdown on banking secrecy and tougher regulation a key component of his campaigning rhetoric. For the Bank of England, that could yet mean an unwanted role in America's presidential race.

More: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1148264,00.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. The point about Pakistan

makes me want to ask Kerry how he would deal with Musharraf (sp?) now.

[King of New Orleans]

4. You mean the unelected leader

of Democratic Pakistan?

[oasis]

3. kick