Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced the largest annual loss in UK corporate history and is to receive a further £13bn of taxpayers' cash.
RBS said that its 2008 loss totalled £24.1bn ($34.2bn), which is the biggest annual loss in the UK corporate history.
It also said it would put £325bn of toxic assets into a scheme that offers insurance for any further losses.
This is a much larger amount than had been expected, and given that these assets are so difficult to value it is not clear whether the British government will in the long run make or lose money on the deal.
'Unjustified excesses'
The bank is under heavy criticism after the BBC learnt that Sir Fred Goodwin, RBS's former chief executive, is already drawing a pension of £650,000 a year,
Britiain's finance minister, the Chancellor Alistair Darling said that government lawyers were looking to see what could be done to claw back some or all of the pension.
"You cannot justify these excesses when you have a failure of this magnitude," he said.
The BBC's Business editor Robert Peston spoke to Stephen Hester, RBS's current chief executive.
Listen Listen to RBS's Stephen Hester (2 mins 23 secs)
End of Section
First broadcast on World Business News on 26 February 2009
