Public ready to close door on RBS

WHEN RBS first mooted the closure of 62 branches across Scotland – several of them the last banks in town – they had, like every big public-facing company, factored in some political kickback and public anger.

But no one, not least the bankers, could have forecasted public resentment growing rather than peaking and fading.

Across Scotland, people of all political persuasions, and none, feel they are being royally ripped off by the greedy bank they saved from disaster.

Had it not been for a massive public cash injection, RBS would have no branches now to close. Had it not been for RBS, and the behaviour of banking institutions like them, communities would not have had to bear the last decade of austerity.

When Ross McEwan goes in front of a panel of MPs today, the RBS boss has a lot of questions to answer.

There are the simple ones – about the closure plan, the way customers are counted, the true number of job losses and the undermining of the branches by aggressive digital banking recruitment.

A well-rehearsed executive, he will give either robust or evasive answers. But there are one or two questions McEwan and RBS cannot answer without blushing.

Is destroying the centuries-old banking structure in small towns and communities across Scotland socially responsible behaviour for a 21st-century business who owe their existence to loyal customers?

If the reputational damage is worth it, is the bonus enough to buy off the guilt?