AK's view from the boundary.

The general public of this country currently own 84% of The Royal Bank of Scotland.

The bank has just announced a loss of £3.6 billion which is far less than the £24 billion lost in 2008. Having said that, bad debt has increased from the 2008 figure of £7.4 billion to today’s figure of £13.9 billion for 2009.

After taking the above figures into account I have to question the decision of RBS in awarding bonuses to its staff totalling £1.3 billion. It really does beggar belief as does the excuse given by UKFI in allowing these bonuses. (This is the body that was set up to look after the public stakes in the banks)

“The revenue payout ratio in the investment bank is the lowest of any such reported ratio for other major investment banks in 2009.”

So that makes it ok? Bullshit. I fail to see why no profit does not equate to no bonus.

The argument of not paying bonuses will lead to the bank losing staff is very weak at the least. Let them go, these people are the very ones at the heart of the problem in the first place, together with lax regulation, good riddance.

I fully agree with Vince Cable’s analogy on this subject;

RBS rewarding individual bankers is like a football team paying their striker for scoring when they’ve just been relegated

I said over 18 months ago, when the banking crisis started, that there would be a lot of finger pointing, much shouting, promises of reform and other such activities, but at the end of the day everything will change but remain the same. The continuing payment of banking bonuses bares witness to this.

I firmly believe in the argument of splitting off the high risk gambling bank operation from the high street operations. Let the high risk casino operations stand or fall on there own.

I also believe nothing will change for the best unless Brown is swept from office at the soon to be held general election as he is part of the problem and not the solution.