Greensill Scandal Archive

Greensill Capital collapses. They needed insurance to back $4.6 billion it was owed by businesses around the world. 50,000 jobs at stake.

David Cameron awarded Simone Finn and Francis Maude peerage in the House of Lords.

David Cameron resigns as Prime Minister.

David Cameron becomes “part-time” special adviser to Greensill Capital, a supply-chain financing firm. He was party paid in shares.

David Cameron arranges private drink with Lex Greensill and Matt Hancock. They aimed to introduce a scheme to remunerate doctors and nurses before their usual paydays. There are no minutes available for this meeting, nor was it at the time logged in transparency documents.

Cameron and Greensill fly to Saudi Arabia to meet crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Cameron said he was helping open up an new regional office in Riyadh.

Cameron emails the Bank of England deputy governor: "I do a lot of work with Greensill Capital, now the world leaders in this space. We would be keen to help … Do you have a moment for a quick word? I am on my old number or can call you whenever convenient. All good wishes. Dc". Cunliffe responds in less than an hour. In the afternoon, Cameron has a call with James Benford, private secretary to the previous governer (Mark Carney). After a call with the BofE, Cameron introuced Greensill to Benford “The purpose of this email is to introduce you to Lex Greensill, founder and CEO of Greensill Capital (GC)… I am an adviser to the company. We would be keen to step and help during the current difficulties. Perhaps a first stage would be for Lex and/or some of his team to meet with some of your experts to discuss how the market works and the role of GC within it.”

A Saturday call to discuss possibility of central bank support for supply chain finance. They agree to later speak to Greensill about their business model.

Cameron reintroduces Lex to Cunliffe in an email: "As I have discussed with both of you, I think it would be good to get together to discuss what more can be done to help companies with supply chain finance, and to understand the new shape and scale of the market. I have copied this to Chiefs of Staff in my and Lex’s office. Jon, if you could do the same we can try and make this work relatively rapidly. All good wishes. Dc"

Greensill emails Cunliffe asking if the BofE could support its lending operations by buying up to £10bn-£20bn of packaged loans.

Rishi announces the £330bn state covid loan program and the Covid Corporate Financing Facility. A call is made between Cameron, Greensill and Bank of England officials. Greensill explains the financial pressure they face.

Cameron texts Sunak, but he's in 'back-to-back' meetings. Cameron also contacted two MPs/Ministers under Rishi's team: John Glen and Jesse Norman. Cameron also calls special adviser Sheridan Westlake, and sends a follow up email: Sheridan. Great to talk. Here are the bullet points I promised. What we most need is for Rishi to have a good look at this and ask officials to find a way of making it work. It seems nuts to exclude supply chain finance. We all know that the banks will struggle to get these loans out of the door — and so other methods of extending credit to firms become even more important. All good wishes DC. ● Greensill is a significant UK employer and its most valuable fintech [financial technology business], and we are keen to use our technology to help in this time of national crisis. ● We delivered £120 billion in credit to 2.6 million SMEs [small or medium-sized enterprises] in 175 countries last year — and are growing at more than 100 per cent per year. ● The Covid crisis has caused a very sharp increase in the demand from SMEs for liquidity — at the same time as many banks and investors are standing on the sidelines. ● Greensill applied to the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) to help it meet demand. HMT said “no” — apparently because the CCFF is to provide direct liquidity to non-financial corporates making a material contribution. ● All Greensill does is provide direct liquidity to non-financial corporates who make a material contribution to the UK economy — indeed we go one better and deliver liquidity directly to more than 100,000 SMEs in the UK today ... to pay invoices quickly that are generated by UK businesses in the real economy. Funding raised against invoices issued to large companies goes directly into the supply chain at every level, rather than to the big corporates. ● Our application conforms with all the conditions of the facility other than it has a securitisation company issuing the commercial paper rather than the finance subsidiary of Vodafone/NHS etc. ● In fact, the BoE [Bank of England] purchased identical supply chain finance paper in the financial crisis, so the precedent is there. Recall Andrew Bailey [governor of the Bank] has spoken of the unique importance of supply chain finance in this time of great economic [unclear]. ● Surely HMG should be seen to be supporting UK fintechs — who are creating employment, driving innovation and already delivering billions in ultra low-cost liquidity to British SMEs — particularly when it has been proven. ● Allowing a securitisation company that issues qualifying commercial paper to access the facility does not create a bad precedent — it is one that a number of fintechs, like Greensill, could instantly use to help deliver cash to SMEs. ● Greensill (and fintechs like it) have the scale, technology, UK-based staff and capability to get credit — in scale — into the hands of UK SMEs in days. Our ask is that you direct officials to work with Greensill to ensure the eligibility criteria are met — we are prepared to be flexible, but we need to work at speed. A failure to do so will, almost certainly, mean tens of thousands ... Greensill (and other fintechs) have to materially reduce their activities.

David writes, “Jon, Am writing to ask for your help. Greensill – who I work with – have had numerous conversations with HMT but have failed to get anywhere. … Am obviously talking to HMT, but would be grateful for any light you could shed on this …”

In the evening, Cameron calls the Secretary to the Treasury. Cameron argued that there was precedent for including Greensill in the CCFF, according to Treasury briefing notes.

Cameron again pushes the deputy governer: "Apologies for bothering you about this again. We (Greensill) have had lots of conversations with HMT and while every question seems to have been answered, we haven’t yet got to the green light." "It is incredibly frustrating because (as you know) trade finance paper was included in a similar scheme in 2008/9 and it would work again." “I ask you to do a one to one call with Lex Greensill so that he can brief you on where we have got to. This comes with all good wishes.”

Rishi Sunak sends a follow up text to David Cameron: "Hi David, apologies for the delay. I think the proposals in the end did require a change to the market notice but I have pushed the team to explore an alternative with the Bank that might work. No guarantees, but the Bank are currently looking at it and Charles should be in touch. Best, Rishi."

Greensill is accredited to the Large Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CLBILS). The seconds largest loan scheme.

The Treasury confirms Greensill is rejected from CCFF. Glen offers to hold a call “privately” with Cameron. Cameron's text responses are redacted in the Treasury document.

More Trusts such as the Royal Free in London sign up for Earnd. They claim 22 trusts were taking part or in the process of doing so.