A late conclusion from Bradford & Bingley's Rod Kent

Bradford & Bingley chairman Rod Kent says: "We have got to up the management game here." While Kent's candour is to be admired — it is all too rare in banking — it does beg the question: who was the chairman overseeing the management that needs to up its game?

Fact: Rod Kent joined the board of Bradford & Bingley in September 2002 and became chairman in November 2002. It's only taken him the best part of six years to reach this conclusion…

Still, kent is ably helped on the Bradford & Bingley board by non-executive director Louise Patten, the wife of former Tory Cabinet minister Lord (John) Patten, and a Bain Consulting brain (she is also a director of Marks & Spencer and Brixton). She lists her recreations in Who's Who as "talking with my husband, our daughter and her ponies".

And the ponies didn't see the cash crisis looming at B&B?

- City Spy diary, London Evening Standard

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