Royal Bank of Scotland could be split up under commission's plans
George Osborne could have his hopes a rapid privatisation of Royal Bank of Scotland scuppered by the parliamentary commission on banking standards, which is said to preparing to recommend the bailed-out bank be nationalised and split into a good and bad bank.
An early draft of the commission's work – which began last September following the Libor crisis – is circling ahead of a formal meeting of the commission members to ratify the report next week. According to the BBC's Robert Peston, the commission wants RBS broken up into a good and bad bank, a move which the chancellor has told the commissioners during his evidence would cost £10bn.
Osborne is thought to be hoping the commission's report will be published before his Mansion House speech to the City on 19 June where he wants to outline a strategy for returning the 81% taxpayer owned RBS to the private sector and the 39% stake in Lloyds Banking Group.
It was not immediately clear how precisely the draft spelt out a division of RBS. It seems likely that the commission is in fact divided over whether the bank should be split up, but even the most subtle of references will present Osborne with a dilemma as he attempts to a pre-election sale of the bank.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jun/04/rbs-split-up-good-bad-bank-osborne