As RBS remains in the red, in the third part of our series financial experts ask whether enough has been done to prevent a repeat of the global crash
Ten years ago, Royal Bank of Scotland was battling with Barclays to take over a Dutch rival, ABN Amro. RBS eventually slapped £49bn on the table and won. It was to be a transformational deal, and it certainly was – but not in any way that the boss of RBS at the time, Sir Fred Goodwin, had ever planned. Today, the Edinburgh-based bank is still displaying the damage caused by doing that deal. Still 71% owned by the taxpayer after a bailout in October 2008, the bank will once again sink to a big loss by the end of the year – its 10th consecutive year in the red.
The story of RBS shows that, even now, the global financial crisis is having a profound impact. But it also raises another issue: has enough been done to prevent a repeat of the horrors of a decade ago, which began in August 2007?