The Sunday Telegraph understands that the report, due to be published on 12 December, will not centre on the work of the two men – chief executive and chairman respectively at the time of the bank’s downfall in October 2008 – nor decisions made by them in connection with the €71bn (£61bn) acquisition of ABN Amro.
A source with knowledge of the report indicated it will centre on the part played by Johnny Cameron, the head of RBS’s investment banking arm at the time.
Cameron is the only member of RBS’s senior management team to have been censured as a result of the bank’s collapse that triggered a £45bn government rescue and which saw taxpayers end up with an 83% stake in the lender.
The report is also expected to look at the part played by the FSA as regulator and supervisor of the bank.
It is understood it will highlight that more analysis should have been carried out by the FSA into the associated risks with the ABN transaction, not least the difference between Barclays’ original agreed takeover of ABN and the hostile takeover led by RBS on behalf of a consortium.
In terms of assessing why the bank failed, the report is expected in large part to blame the global financial crisis and the risks created by buying ABN at a time of greatly-reduced market liquidity.
The report is being published a year after the FSA closed its original investigation into the bank’s collapse, which it signalled with a 12-line press release.
Following intense pressure, the FSA agreed to publish the document, with oversight by City grandees Sir David Walker and Bill Knight.
