Recommendation 22

The Bank confirmed that the investigation was still ongoing as it was awaiting a formal response from Greensill’s joint administrators. The Bank explained that it had agreed to extend the deadline for Greensill’s response to August 2021 because it wanted to receive a “fulsome answer” to its detailed set of concerns.63 When asked why Greensill appeared to have a completely different interpretation of the scheme rules, the Bank told us that “there is always scope for a lawyer to interpret different rules and different definitions differently”.64 While the investigation is ongoing, the guarantee remains suspended until a decision is reached.65 We asked when the Bank envisaged being able to make a final decision about the suspension of the guarantee. The Bank told us that it would not be in a position to answer this until it had received a response from Greensill’s administrators, and did not provide a timeframe for how long it thought this might take.66 The Department told us that if a future call on the guarantee was made following a default from any of Greensill’s borrowers, it was important that government was clear on its rationale for suspending the guarantee. It noted that the decision on whether Greensill breached the scheme rules would ultimately be decided in a court of law.67 Lending under CLBILS and the use of funds