Nearly 4,000 days ago and in a different financial universe, Royal Bank of Scotland made the fateful announcement that confirmed media speculation that it was at the head of a bidding consortium to buy ABN Amro, the Dutch financial group.
The £49 billion purchase of ABN is unlikely to be toppled soon as one of the most disastrous takeovers in history. The fact that RBS’s shareholders merrily backed it on its way to doom is a fact that many would prefer to forget. It took barely 12 months from the takeover being signed to the bank reaching the point where it could be saved only by the injection of £46 billion of taxpayers’ money.
RBS has about 700 branches, mainly in Scotland but also throughout