Lib Dems: RBS profits should benefit businesses

Date: 6th August 2010

Small business owners around the UK could be among those to be encouraged by recent comments regarding profits at a sate-owned bank.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is largely owned by taxpayers after a government bailout, recently posted pre-tax half-year profits of £1.1 billion.

Stephen Williams, co-chair of the Liberal Democrats' Treasury policy Committee, said businesses around the country should be the ones to benefit from the profits.

"RBS is almost entirely owned by the taxpayer, so these huge profits must be used for the national interest and not just to pay massive bonuses to senior staff," he said

"There is no excuse for RBS not to loan to good British companies that are struggling to get credit. We cannot simply allow banks to go back to business as usual while viable British firms are suffering."

Posted by Thomas Fletcher