Lenders that received payouts from a £425m pot of public cash set aside after Royal Bank of Scotland was bailed out in 2008 will not be held accountable over delayed projects, after the Treasury refused to extend supervision arrangements beyond the new year.
Under so-called state aid rules, which applied when the UK was still a member of the European Union, RBS money was given to smaller challenger banks to spend developing their services for business customers, in an effort to promote competition and offset the market-skewing effects of RBS’s £45bn government bailout in 2008.
