How to excuse the presence of ABN AMRO's CDO business on your CV

Goldman bankers predictably have no shame at the inclusion of 'the firm' on their CV.

According to John Carney, writing for the Daily Beast, some Goldmanites actually think the fraud allegations are doing their business a favour. "Sure does make us look smart, right?" says one.

However, anyone who worked at ABN AMRO's CDO business suddenly looks a lot less smart.

RBS lost $841m on the Abacus trade, which it inherited from ABN, suggesting ABN's CDO professionals were tantamount to the widows and orphans Fabrice Tourre referred to.

We've spoken to two ex-ABN CDO professionals. Here's how they're excusing their stint at ABN and why they think it will have no bearing on their future careers.

1) It was a structural thing

The failings of ABN's CDO business weren't down to individual errors, but were because it lacked some of the checks and balances present at other banks according to one former employee.

"At other banks I worked at, if anyone were going to take CDO risk they would go back to the CDO team and ask them to evaluate whether it was the right thing to do," says one. "At ABN, there were several teams who could invest in CDOs and in my experience they didn't necessarily have to go back to the experts for clearance. We didn't operate entirely as one business."

2) I was a cog in the machine

"Every individual plays different roles in different banks at different times. ABN AMRO isn't a blot on my CV because I was only one part of what happened there," was another excuse offered.

3) The whole CDO business is implicated

"It's not just ABN, it's the entire CDO business globally which is now under scrutiny," says one ex-ABN CDO professional. The other agrees: "Look at all the banks which were involved in the Magnetar trades. They're really very similar."

4) It was RBS's fault

Conspiracy theories are rife. Ex-ABN bankers feel that RBS is unfairly blaming them for its problems.

"Take what you hear with a pinch of salt," says one. "It's very easy for RBS to blame ABN, but a lot of this stuff came from their own positions."