‘Countrywide thinks it’s too big to fail’ claims industry analyst
Andrew Stanton argues that witness statement made by Countrywide COO Paul Creffield in RICS case reveals 'alarming' attitudes within the company.
A leading property industry analyst has claimed that Countrywide thinks it’s too big to fail after he examined evidence submitted to the RICS investigation into the company’s mismanagement of client funds.
Andrew Stanton says the witness statement made by CEO Paul Creffield (above) included within the documents released by RICS about the case are proof of the company’s ‘alarming and arrogant’ belief that its size and reach should be considered mitigating circumstances.
Countrywide was fined £75,000 and reprimanded by a RICS disciplinary panel after transferring unclaimed client funds to its own bank account and, at one point, declaring the cash as part of its profits.
RICS rules stipulate that such funds should either be held in a ring-fenced client account or ‘loaned’ to a charity with strings attached.
The ‘serious and continued’ misconduct took place between 2008 and 2018 but only came to light following an external audit.
Countrywide received a relatively light fine because it cooperated with RICS and, the panel recognised, no deceit was involved in decision making when in 2008 previous senior executives decided on the policy.
But pointing to the lengthy statement submitted by Creffield to RICS, which includes lengthy references to Countrywide’s size and connections to the institution, Stanton (left) claims the mood music within it is that Countrywide is ‘too big to fail’.
“If you look closely at Paul’s statement in mitigation he seems very much to make the case that because Countrywide does billions of pounds worth of mortgages a year, has a massive RICs presence, and a large office network and so it would be a travesty if Countrywide were too badly damaged by the affair, as it would possibly upset the property industry as a whole,” he says.
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