Banking is a good game to be in, if you are unsure about whether you will be good at it.
Even if the bank you are running fails – or falters, but is rescued by taxpayers – you stand to do quite nicely, thank you. In Britain, anyway (and reports from the US show it is true there, too).
The Royal Bank of Scotland has just announced the largest annual loss in British corporate history.
Bailed out by the government last year, it has reported a 2008 loss of £24.1bn.
It says it will put £325bn of “toxic assets” (Alf loves the language of high finance) into a scheme that offers insurance for any future losses.
So who was in charge when the bank was racing to the cliff edge?
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