‘No deal’, say RBS investors who claim bank misled them in 2008

According to reports, a meeting was held last month between RBS lawyers and shareholders who sunk money into the bank months before it needed to be bailed out at a cost of £45.5 billion to the UK taxpayer.

However, the discussions at the luxury Grove Hotel near Watford, Hertfordshire, left lawyers failing to agree a deal.

The Edinburgh-based lender, which is still 73 per cent state-owned, has been accused by 35,000 shareholders, including some of Britain’s biggest institutional investors and public pension funds, of wilfully concealing the extent of its perilous financial position when it came to them for money in April 2008.

Just six months later the bank needed the biggest government bailout in history and is yet to post an annual profit since and shares bought as a result of the rights issue have lost nine-tenths of their value.

At the meeting, RBS offered investors about £700m, according to sources, but the claimants are chasing £4bn in damages, plus another £2bn in interest and legal fees.

“They are offering pennies when we are after pounds. We are now focused on pursuing actions through the courts,” said one lawyer.