The Royal Bank of Scotland has recently announced its 2009 financial results and the ailing bank is down £3.6billion.

The loss is largely as a result of bad loans, but regardless of this dire position, bonuses are being paid to the tune of £1.3billion. The reasoning is that productive staff have been lost through not paying good enough bonuses in the past.

However, this will come as unwelcome news to many in the UK as 84 per cent of the bank is owned by the public after the government was forced to step in towards the end of 2008 as the financial difficulties threatened the future of RBS.