Bank rows - Greenburgh cited...
Matthew Greenburgh. Remember him? Well, in case you don't, let Betaville remind you. He was a top financial institutions group banker at Merrill Lynch who advised on some the biggest takeover deals of the credit boom, including Royal Bank of Scotland's £67 billion takeover of ABN Amro.
Greenburgh's was feared by colleagues for his "direct" style but it also engendered admiration from ambitious banking bosses, including Fred "the shred" Goodwin, who turned to the Merrill Lynch financier when he decided to go after ABN Amro.
Anyway, Greenburgh ducked out of investment banking once it became clear some of the transactions he had helped stitch together weren't going to work out so well (although the venerable Financial Times reports Greenburgh hung around to help out on the government bail out of RBS and Lloyds on its takeover of HBOS).
So Betaville can't imagine the combative Greenburgh is going to be too pleased being cited on the first day of the trial of a £600 million shareholder lawsuit against Lloyds Banking Group in the Royal Courts of Justice.
Court moles have got in touch to point out that Richard Hill, QC for the the shareholder action group, gave the erudite ex Merrill banker a bit of a roasting. Apparently, the barrister said:
"Greenburgh advised on two of the most catastrophic deals in recent history - in both cases he supported the deal."
Sources down at the trial said the judge's response was:
"That’s an observation made in hindsight."
Meow.....