Recently by Scott McCulloch

Royal bank of Scotland will take little comfort from its $100 million settlement award from the US Securities and Exchange Commission from Goldman Sachs admission it was economical with the truth in its selling of toxic bond deals wrapped up in Abacus 2007-AC1.

RBS is now "considering all options" which obviously includes the possibility of pursuing Goldman's for a considerably larger chunk of the $870 million it lost in the Abacus investment deal.

Those losses stemmed from the fraudulent omission Goldman's hedge fund client, Paulson & Co was not only selecting mortgages for the portfolio, but was also making side bets those mortgages would drop in value.

A very cosy arrangement for Goldman's, which also charged Paulson & Co $15 million for the privilege of selecting mortgage backed securities to go into Abacus both Goldmans and Paulson must have known were at the very least suspect.

They say what happens in the United States eventually filters through to the UK.

So the evidence given by the United States Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke to the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C on February 10 makes for interesting reading.

In his written submission to the committee on the Federal Reserve's exit strategy from what he describes as the "extraordinary lending and monetary policies that it implemented to combat the financial crisis and support economic activity" he adds an interesting footnote.

He states: "The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system."

The full text of Mr Bernanke's evidence to the committee can be read here

THE news Scottish banks have been "unfair and aggressive" towards their most vulnerable retail customers will come as little surprise to their business customers.

The Scottish affairs select committee, made up of a panel of MPs, has found the taxpayer supported banks have been using what it described as "unsavoury practices" against its most vulnerable customers.

Examples provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau made for grim reading, with some customers complaining they were forced into taking loans to avoid defaulting on non-related financial products, excessive charges for overdraft extensions and rate hikes on credit cards - to name but a few.

Colin Borland, public affairs manager for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland said he welcomed the views expressed by committee.

He said the FSB in Scotland has for the last 18-months been highlighting similar "unfair and aggressive" practices levelled at small business customers by their lenders.

The announcement the UK has now left recession after reporting 0.1 per cent growth brought some cheer to businesses hoping the longest period of gloom since the Great Depression is finally behind us.

The problem the government faced was the fact entering into a seventh consecutive quarters of negative growth would give the appearance we were headed down the road to depression.

The ONS figures also have an error range built-in, which are generally not published, but the figures range from between -0.2 per cent and +0.4 per cent.

Of course the 0.1 per cent growth figure will be adjusted to provide a more accurate account in the coming months, but for now we will have to settle for the less accurate range figure.

So, are we really out of recession just shy of 550 days of negative growth?

Revealing details have now been published by HM Treasury on exactly what sort of assets Royal Bank of Scotland will put into the government's Asset Protection Scheme.

The due diligence of the assets RBS proposed to add to the APS, conducted by Ernst & Young and KPMG for a collective £16.4m fee, identified £43bn of assets they either rejected from the scheme or deemed to "no longer require protection."

So this reduced the £325bn in toxic assets RBS hoped to dump into the APS to £282bn.

However, the Treasury report documenting which of the Scottish bank's assets are entering into the scheme is rather scant on the details of those assets which the auditors refused to add to the APS.

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, banks in the United States were banned from mixing commercial and investment banking for more than 60 years.

The first of two Bills which made up the Glass-Steagall Act was brought into law in February 1932 in an effort to curb deflation and increase the US government's ability to provide financing to the banking sector.

This was followed by the second Act, passed in June 1933 separating banking types according to their business.

The argument being the new law would protect shareholders from undue risks made by the investment side of the business which investors had no voting control over.

But the separation of investment and commercial banking enshrined in the Glass-Steagall Acts of 1932 and 1933 were repealed in 1999.

The Treasury appears to have won its battle with the Board of Royal Bank of Scotland over a speculated £1.5bn bonus pot for its investment banking arm.

RBS, having bowed to intense political pressure, has now agreed to pay bonuses at the "low, low end of the scale" - even if this means it will lose staff to better paying rivals.

Lloyds have also announced a bonus package for its top 200 executives of up to 80 per cent of their salaries, in a shares only package spread over three years.

And this on the same day the National Audit Office revealed the actual cost to the taxpayer so far for the banking crisis currently stands at ￡850bn.

News the government of Dubai was seeking a standstill on the debt repayments of its investment vehicle, Dubai World, is currently reverberating through the world's financial markets.

Dubai World has interests in all manner of industries globally and has a number of UK investments in property, leisure and ports, among others.

However it is being weighed down by its property arm Nakheel, which counts the iconic Palm Islands development in the Gulf among its assets.

Ripples from this reach all the way to Scotland as Leisurecorp - a division of Nakheel - bought Turnberry, host of the 2009 Open Golf Championship, for £55m last year.

The revelation of 'secret' loans totaling £62bn to Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland last year is startling.

Equally eye opening was the answer City minister Lord Myners gave when asked what other banks had received covert loans.

In a rather convoluted way he told Channel 4 News: "The very definition of covert is that is not a question I am going to answer."

What is important to differentiate here is the fact these were not loans made in the traditional sense, but rather the Bank of England (BoE) stepping into the role of lender of last resort after the money markets closed up following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.