RBS bankers suffering for the mistakes of 500 people
Claims of personal innocence may not wash with the general urge to demonize anyone who's ever set foot in Bishopsgate, but an article in the Sunday Times illustrates the extent to which the mass of markets professionals at RBS are being made to suffer for the mistakes of the few.
According to the paper, just 500 people (around 2.5% of global banking and markets staff) were directly implicated in the banks' 8bn of credit losses, and 400 of them have left already.
Assuming the remaining 97.5% were at least vaguely profitable, or at most not catastrophically loss making, it therefore looks a little unfortunate that their numbers are likely to be decimated under new plans to achieve cost savings of 1bn.
It's equally unfortunate that the FX business, which The Times says is still profitable, is partaking, along with everyone else, of the much, much reduced 175m cash bonus pot.
