Record losses for RBS

According to a recent report the Royal Bank of Scotland is set to receive a further £13 billion worth of taxpayers’ money after reporting record losses under the leadership of disgraced boss Sir Fred Goodwin, who himself is at the centre of controversy and faces a legal battle with the government over the £693 million a year pension scheme that he refuses to give up despite the problems that the bank has been plunged into.

Figures show that RBS losses for last year totalled £24.1 billion, and Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the bank, said that he was ‘under no illusions’ with regards to the scale of the losses, adding that it was important “to think about the past, to know what went wrong, to disclose it and to address those issues”.

One top of an additional £13 billion cash injection from the government RBS has been looking at other ways to try and minimise on the impact of the losses, and this could mean restructuring and job cuts, as well as the placement of billions of pounds worth of toxic assets into a new government insurance programme.

However, Unite’s joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, said: “We are extremely frustrated by the lack of clarity over the company’s restructuring proposals with no firm detail on jobs. The uncertainty hanging over the heads of these workers is unacceptable.”