Royal Bank of Scotland gets more state aid and lays off more staff

Edinburgh MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is about to pump a massive £38billion into the Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Government is keen to get these two banking giants to restructure and sell parts of their empire off - as Tavish Scott and the Liberal Democrats first demanded over a year ago, as we were in the run up to the Glenrothes by-election.

One year on, in the run up to the Glasgow North East by-election the Labour government once again listens to the wisdom of the Liberal Democrats.

So, the Royal Bank of Scotland's response to getting another handout, this time £25billion, with a further £7billion available as well - yahoo - let's make another 3,700 people redundant.

The taxpayer, you and me folks now own 84% of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

As 2009 as gone on there has been a wave of redundancy announcements from RBS totalling around 16,000, and now on the day the government pumps in a further £25billion they announce a further 3,700 redundancies, this time from the branch staff.

There are currently 25,000 retail staff within the RBS branches across the world, but not now 14.8% of those are about to lose their job - great Christmas present from the bank.

Let us not forget their slogan - make it happen - well perhaps now with nearly 20,000 being made redundant and the fact the we own most of the bank perhaps the management team at RBS could get off their backsides and make it work.

They should be ashamed of themselves. Let's hope they don't award themselves any bonuses.

Bank charges reduced by Royal Bank of Scotland/Natwest Group

So the Royal Bank of Scotland/Natwest group have decided to reduce their bank charges for various items, now I welcome this and wish my bank, Lloyds TSB, also partly state owned will not only follow suit, but also then refund me for everything they've overcharged me.

Has this decision been made before the House of Lords and Office of Fair Trading ruling that dictates these charges are unlawful or at the very least well over the top and force the banks to drop the charges and force them to refund all those previous charges highlighted.

I saw the story yesterday but the full page advert in today's Metro caught my eye and reminded me of the story, the news was also covered on moneysavingexpert.com who really started the campaign to slash bank charges, so the first round goes to Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com although Brian Hartzer the Chief Executive Officer, UK Retail Banking of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group will claim it is all his idea - obviously!

So, the unpaid items charge has gone from £38 to £5, the guaranteed card payment fees have gone from £35 to £15, paid referral fees are reduced from £30 to £15 and the maintenance charge has been cut from £28 to £20. These reductions come into force on 1st October.

So well done to The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, but did they jump before they were pushed by the House of Lords and Office of Fair Trading?

Lloyds TSB bank charges - £60,000 per week

Iain Dale has reported a fantastic story today about Andy Hornby (former HBOS boss) who was giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee.

He is now a consultant with Lloyds TSB, paid a mere £60,000 per week - yes per week!

Well done to Iain Dale for raising it.

Me, I am just one of the mugs that is a Lloyds TSB customer, why should I continue - anyone from Lloyds TSB want to advise me why?