…after RBS admitted its guilt. Which was nice.

According to The Times, RBS landed the fine after it admitted sharing confidential pricing information with its chief rival Barclays on loans to big professional services firms, such as accountants and solicitors between October 2007 and March 2008. Guess who was in charge at the time of the misbehaviour? Yup, Fred Goodwin. One more bullet point for the CV.

So a fair cop – bank misbehaves, gets caught, regulator extracts fine? Maybe but consider this: Barclays got away scot free being the first to admit guilt. Whilst Royal Bank of Scotland which is now 84 per cent-owned by the taxpayer, will pay a fine of almost £28.6 million to the OFT, a taxpayer funded body, for price fixing at a time prior to the bank’s effective nationalisation.

Procedural propriety aside for a second – a taxpayer owned and funded body has fined a taxpayer owned and funded body. Who is the loser?