A 500 page document detailing the reasons why the RBS nearly went under, has been released by the Financial Services Authority, though the purchase of Dutch Bank ABN Amro for £49 billion, seen as a bit of a prize at the time, is close to the top of the "errors made" chart.

Insufficient research was carried out before the bid for ABN Amro went ahead but they were in competition with other banks at the time, who escaped the doom deal and may have looked at the purchase through rose coloured glasses.

Insufficient regulation and unfettered expansion were other reasons for their demise and the whole debacle was caused by pure bad management with no illegal activitites or acts of dishonesty seen, while the bank was under investigation.

The bank remains 80% owned by the British tax payer.