State benefits for RBS

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was hit hard during the crisis, only avoiding failure after the UK government stepped in with a rescue package in October 2008. The bank is now almost completely owned by the government – 84% of total share capital is held by UK Financial Investments, an entity set up to manage the government’s shareholdings in financial institutions.

The intervention calmed fears about the imminent collapse of a UK bank, at a time when markets were reeling from the failure of Lehman