FORMER HEAD of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Sir Fred Goodwin, whose bank cost British taxpayers £53 billion (€62.5 billion) to rescue, will not face punishment by the UK financial regulator. It said yesterday it had no evidence of wrongdoing or a “lack of integrity” from its 18-month investigation of his leadership of the bank.The decision will be deeply unpopular.

The Financial Services Authority, through auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, had probed the conduct of Sir Fred and other bank executives during the takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 in a deal that ultimately brought the bank to its knees.

In its ruling, the authority said: “RBS made a series of bad decisions, these bad decisions were not the result of a lack of integrity by any individual, and we did not identify any instances of fraud or dishonest activity by RBS senior individuals or a failure of governance on the part of the board.” It indicated that Sir Fred and other ex-bank executives would not be licensed to work in the City again.

National officer of the Unite trade union Rob MacGregor said that “by failing to bring any formal charges against the RBS executives they have allowed some of the biggest villains of the financial crisis to go on enjoying their millionaire lifestyles, whilst taxpayers experience cuts and staff face an insecure future.”