Interesting times for top banker

May 18 2009 By Peter McCusker, The Journal

When Mike Mullaney accepted one of the top jobs in North East banking in 2007 little did he know the world of finance was set to be propelled to global attention. But as Peter McCusker discovers, Mullaney and his team are confident they are going from strength to strength.

MIKE Mullaney was on gardening leave from RBS, waiting to begin his new job as LloydsTSB's top North East business banker, when the queues began forming outside Northern Rock offices across the UK.

As the financial crisis unfolded over the following months RBS, and then his new employers, all became majority state-owned banks as the country witnessed, open- mouthed, a sea change in the world of finance that would have been unfathomable two years earlier.

Leading bankers are now household names, often hated ones, and Mullaney’s former bosses have appeared on TV saying sorry for the ill-judged way they ran the bank.

Some commentators claim the lending policies of RBS (not just its takeover of ABN Amro) were responsible for its downfall.

But Mullaney, Lloyds’ director and head of large corporate banking in the North East refutes any such talk.

In the mid part of the last decade, as director of mid-corporate banking in the North East for RBS, Mullaney had a clear insight into the nature of the bank’s lending.

He says: "There were no sloppy deals done. We were under no pressure to change our lending criteria and we continued to concentrate on making good, solid banking decisions. It was the same with every bank in the region. Nobody went mad."

He continues: "I left RBS in July 2007 and didn’t start work at Lloyds until October 2007. During that time the words ‘credit crunch’ were invented. That was the start of the new world."

He has been ribbed by some of his acquaintances that he foresaw the RBS train hitting the buffers and got off at the last stop.

He chuckles: "I could say I was the best forecaster in the world. But I wanted a fresh challenge. I had some great years at RBS."

Mullaney, who had spent his career in corporate banking with the NatWest before its takeover by RBS in 2000, has met controversial former RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin on a number of occasions.

And when I move the conversation on to Sir Fred, for the only time during our conversation Mullaney shuffles uneasily in his chair.

He says: "I met him on a couple of occasions and was very impressed by him."

He went on to say that he believes the problems faced by banks now are primarily a cause of the globalisation of financial markets. When pressed about some of the calls for Sir Fred to pay back his pension Mullaney says he accepts that failure should not be rewarded and goes on to condemn some of the extreme reactions to Sir Fred, including the attack on his house.