The former labour chancellor of the exchequer, who engineered a number of bank bailouts during his tenure, Alistair Darling, has been appointed to the board of directors of Morgan Stanley. The news comes just a day after the appointment of former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the advisory board of one of the biggest asset managers in the world, Pimco.
Under the tenure of Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling between 2007 and 2010, a number of financial firms were bailed out with public funds. Both appointments have created substantial controversy, since both companies could have benefited substantially from the decisions that the former Labour officials took in 2008.
Commenting on the appointment of Mr. Darling, the Chairman of Morgan Stanley, James Gorman said, “As chancellor of the exchequer he played a central role in responding to the financial crisis. The board, our management and our shareholders will greatly benefit from his experience and perspective.”
We could argue as to whether Mr. Gorman wouldn’t have said that the management and shareholders of the company have already benefited from the expertise of Alistair Darling.
Sarcastic tweets followed after the announcement:
Last night my new role at Morgan Stanley was announced. Tomorrow I'm inducted into the Lords. It truly is the best week of my life. Blessed.
— Lord Darling (@A_LordDarling) December 9, 2015The above refers to the event later this week, when Alistair Darling is going to be given a peerage and will enter the House of Lords. Apparently the post-financial crisis controversy is to follow us for many more years to come.
Prior to the announcement that Alistair Darling will be joining the board of Morgan Stanley in January 2016, the bank announced that it will be cutting 1200 jobs. Last week, Finance Magnates exclusively reported the departure of Kay Haigh and Oliver Jerome from Morgan Stanley's Emerging Markets Division.
As to Gordon Brown, he will be joining a star team at Pimco. His peers on the newly created new global advisory board will be former top central bankers Ben Bernanke and Jean-Claude Trichet. That said, Mr. Brown has pledged that all of his income from Primco will be transferred to the charitable foundation run by his wife, Sarah Brown.
