Despite attempting to wriggle off the hook, which is the UK government's asset protection scheme, the Royal Bank of Scotland has been forced to sign up and confirmed that this happened on 26 November. While there's no doubt that the scheme will protect the company's assets in the short to medium term, like Lloyds bank, the company had been attempting to negotiate an exit rather than pay the multibillion pound premium.

In a bizarre quake of fate, if the UK economy does take a further downturn, as some people believe it will in 2010, the scheme will become vital for Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds bank may well have made a mistake negotiating its own exit. The agreement which was signed by Royal Bank of Scotland is conditional upon approval by Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders and overall approval by the European commission which is now heavily involved in the UK banking sector and the restructuring of businesses such as Lloyds bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Now that the saga surrounding the asset protection scheme looks to be over there are hopes that the Royal Bank of Scotland management can look ahead to the future even though markets are still very difficult. This is a company which was the largest banking operation in the world at one stage, after a massive expansion programme, but has now come back down to earth with a bump and will need to rebuild from a very low base.

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