RBS penalty is huge but who has really paid the price?
STAGGERING is the only way to describe the Royal Bank of Scotland’s £3.6billion penalty payment to the US Department of Justice to end an investigation into the dodgy sales of financial products which led to the financial crisis.
Ross McEwan, the bank’s chief executive, was salutary about the settlement which RBS have already factored into their accounts.
The fine is “the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis”.
But all the sums involved in RBS, the £45billion public bailout, Fred Goodwin’s £700,000 a year pension (reduced on appeal by £200,000), the £9.5million saving from abandoning much of rural Scotland, are staggering.
The losses are huge but the bank comes up smelling of roses. In the first quarter of 2018, RBS already made £40million more than they did in the whole of last year.
The way is clear for the UK Government to sell their 71 per cent stake in the bank and even that will be at a loss.
But who has really paid the price for the credit crash and the decade of austerity we’re living through?
Thousands will march through London on Saturday under the TUC banner demanding “a new deal for working people”.
Their living standards are falling, pensions are under pressure, the minimum wage is too low and young workers don’t get a living wage.
Since the crash, a whole generation of workers have come to accept zero hours contracts as the norm.
Debt bondage is common, with reported cases of slavery increasing by 35 per cent year on year. Wage slavery is what it is.
At RBS they’re slaving for their money too.
Ross McEwan’s top line pay is £3.5million. In 2017, RBS’s top 10 senior managers earned £26.5million, up £2million on year before.
Doesn’t everyone deserve a decent pay rise and a decent job?