FSA report into the collapse of RBS

So now we know! The Regulators have at last reported on the collapse of RBS.

Bankers have preached at businesses for years to avoid two cardinal errors - overtrading and too much gearing.

Unfortunately RBS didn't heed their own advice!!

Between 2003 and 2007 they quadrupled the size of their balance sheet - sounds like overtrading to me!

But they didn't heed the warning signs and blindly launched into taking over ABNM Amro.

All they got from ABNM Amro was two lever arch files and a CD. Despite this lack of information, RBS paid £21 billion for ABNM Amro - and had got no idea what they were buying!

To compound this error, RBS made another mistake! It borrowed 100% of the £21 billion !!!

If this was not a big enough error, RBS made another mistake by having the debts as very short term!!

No wonder it fell over after a such a series of poor decisions - you don't have to be a high flying City financier to know that breaking some very basic banking rules would end in tears.

Oh and by the way - when RBS finally did look at ABNM Amro, it discovered that its balance sheet was riddled with dodgy sub-prime loans!!

What a catalogue of errors!