Crown Office finds ‘insufficient evidence’ of criminal conduct at RBS

No one will face charges over the collapse of RBS, after an investigation found “insufficient evidence” of criminal wrongdoing.

The five-year-long investigation by the Crown Office included the examination of over 160,000 documents by a team of specialist forensic accountants and banking experts, supervised by the Serious and Organised Crime Division.

The Crown Office said the investigation involved close co-operation with financial regulators and banking institutions including the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Reporting Council.

However, insufficient evidence of wrongdoing was found.

No action will now be taken against the company as a whole or any of the directors or senior management.

A Crown Office spokesperson said: “Following careful examination of all the evidence seen to date, Crown Counsel have decided that there is insufficient evidence in law of criminal conduct either in relation to RBS as an institution or any directors or other senior management involved in the rights issue.

“If any further evidence comes to light which is relevant to this enquiry it will be considered by the Crown and we reserve the right to make further enquiry, if considered appropriate.”

Former chief executive of RBS Fred Goodwin resigned his position at the bank in 2008, following its near collapse and effective nationalisation.

RBS’s losses of £24bn in 2008 were the largest in UK corporate history.

Goodwin’s knighthood, awarded in 2004 for ‘services to banking’, was rescinded in 2012.