--- born: 1927-01-05 category: BCCI Scandal died: 2013-11-24 location: Hollingbourne, Kent, England relations: - fn: 1 role: governor type: head_of with: '[[Bank of England]]' summary: Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the Bank of England. tags: - Person - BCCI --- Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the [Bank of England](/organizations/bank-of-england/).[^1] ### Role in BCCI Scandal Leigh-Pemberton, along with Deputy Governor [Eddie George](/people/eddie-george/), was aware of the disastrous 1990 Price Waterhouse audit of [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/), which revealed that many of BCCI's transactions were "fraudulent and deceitful."[^2] Despite this knowledge, the Bank of England agreed to a plan in spring 1990 to allow BCCI to move its headquarters to [Abu Dhabi](/places/abu-dhabi/) and for [Sheikh Zayed](/people/zayed-bin-sultan-al-nahayan/) to take over the bank.[^3] This action effectively concealed BCCI's problems from its depositors and creditors.[^4] On June 28, 1991, Leigh-Pemberton and George decided to act, informing the Federal Reserve Bank of the impending seizure of BCCI in the [United Kingdom](/places/united-kingdom/).[^5] The Bank of England had been reluctant to shut down BCCI, despite knowing of its insolvency, and had been trying to persuade Sheikh Zayed to inject more money.[^6] ### Testimony to Parliament Robin Leigh-Pemberton told the House of Commons Treasury and Civil Service Committee that on receipt of the [Price Waterhouse](/organizations/price-waterhouse/) reports of April and October 1990 the Bank had been "alerted to [fraud and deceit]," but that "our view was that even if this added up to individual acts of fraudulent conduct it did not give evidence of a system of fraud throughout the Bank which was wide enough to justify closure. I hope it does not shock you too much, it is only a matter of realism that we do have occasions of fraud in banks... if we close down a bank every time we find an individual act or two of fraud we would have rather fewer banks than we do at the moment." On warning depositors he said: "A hint from the Bank of England that somebody on our list may not be quite pukka would be the kiss of death to the future of a bank." He added: "I am sorry to say we have to leave it people to make their best judgment as to whether any one of those institutions is or is not fit to be a depository for the purpose they want." The [Kerry-Brown Senate Report](/events/bcci-kerry-brown-senate-report/) quoted the testimony in its findings that the Bank had kept BCCI's problems secret from its depositors from April 1990.[^7] [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 135. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 135. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 135. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 146. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 55. [^7]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm