---
category: "BCCI Scandal"
tags:
  - Person
  - BCCI
summary: "Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the Bank of England."
born: 1927-01-05
died: 2013-11-24
location: "Hollingbourne, Kent, England"
relations:
  - type: head_of
    with: "[[Bank of England]]"
    role: "governor"
    fn: 1
---

Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the [[Bank of England]].[^1]

### Role in BCCI Scandal

Leigh-Pemberton, along with Deputy Governor [[Eddie George]], was aware of the disastrous 1990 Price Waterhouse audit of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], 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]] and for [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] 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]].[^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]] 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 [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|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]

### Footnotes

[^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