The Independent, February 2013 – Stephen Gilchrist letter on taxpayers footing the bill for RBS Libor fine
Taxpayer will foot bill for RBS fine
10th February 2013
The question is not how much Royal Bank of Scotland has to pay to the FSA, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US department of justice for its role in global rate rigging, but who foots the bill? (Report, 6 February.) The taxpayer owns 82 per cent of RBS and yet Vince Cable claims that while the government expects the Bank and its casino operation to "absorb" the cost, by way of bonus clawbacks and so on, the government "isn't in a position to make them" pay up. A dime to a dollar the regulatory fines imposed on RBS will be met by another blank taxpayer's cheque. Such is the way of our broken financial world.
Stephen Gilchrist
Chairman and head of regulatory law, Saunders Law, London WC2