Guardian – Royal Bank of Scotland pleaded on Thursday to be allowed to run on a commercial basis as the taxpayer-owned bank announced losses widened to £2bn in 2011, and confirmed it paid out £390m in bonuses to investment bankers.
Sir Philip Hampton, appointed chairman after the October 2008 bailout, said that the bank needed to be run on “commercial grounds” if taxpayers were to get their £45bn investment back. The taxpayer is currently sitting on £20bn of losses on its 82% stake, despite the 2% rise in the shares to 28p by 8.30am.
