Britain’s government greeted the charming Mr Greensill not with suspicion, but with a job in 10 Downing Street and a contract with the National Health Service
Supply-chain finance is a simple solution to a common business problem: long payment terms. A retailer, for example, will want goods from its wholesalers upfront but may delay paying their invoices for weeks. Greensill, and firms like it, offer an alternative to waiting. They pay the money at once, for a small charge, and then cash in the invoices when they fall due. Greensill took the model a step further by bundling up its loans to firms as bonds for sale to yield-hungry investors.
The second is a permeability to outside interests. Mr Greensill was made an unpaid government adviser on supply-chain finance in 2012, and had a Downing Street business card. He had previously worked alongside Jeremy Heywood, then the head of the civil service, as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Hardest to explain is how Bill Crothers, formerly the government’s chief procurement officer, was allowed to work part-time for Greensill while still holding his government post.
David Cameron is naive. Much easier making illegitimate billions through climate change and “clean” energy.