BANKING: Pierced by a Blue Arrow

Britain’s giant National Westminster P.L.C. likes to advertise itself as the “Action Bank.” Last week the action made front-page headlines when four of the bank’s top executives, including chairman Lord Boardman, resigned. The NatWest shake-up, unprecedented in British banking, followed a July 20 report by the Department of Trade and Industry that accused the institution’s investment-bank subsidiary of having “deliberately misled” stock-market investors and broken British corporate laws. The report said the wrongdoing occurred when a $1.35 billion stock offering by an employment-services company called Blue Arrow flopped and NatWest ended up in possession of 13.4% of the company’s shares, a holding it illegally concealed from market regulators for months. In announcing his resignation, effective Sept. 30, Lord Boardman, 70, admitted that “there were serious failings” in handling the Blue Arrow issue.