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On Wednesday we reached a settlement with two regulators over the setting of foreign exchange benchmarks. And once again, we at RBS found ourselves in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. We weren’t the only bank to be there but, for me, that’s not important. What’s important is that we were there at all.

To say that I am angry about this misconduct is an understatement. What this has shown me is that we have had people working in this bank that did not know right from wrong – or worse, didn’t care about the distinction. This small number of people put their interests ahead of that of their clients.

When the Board and my management team first found out about these allegations last year we immediately instructed our legal and compliance teams to give their full cooperation to the authorities to get the bottom of the issues. The settlements are the result of an investigation that examined millions of pieces of correspondence and evidence and required thousands of hours of work from RBS staff.

And the investigation continues – we are still working our way through disciplinary and accountability processes involving over 50 employees and their managers. While we will treat all people fairly, those who have been found lacking in conduct or accountability terms will be dealt with appropriately, including through claw back, award forfeiture, or through formal disciplinary procedures

There is no place for this misconduct at the RBS I am building with my colleagues and I apologise to all of our customers and to the 100,000 hard working members of staff that do come in every day determined to do a good, honest day’s work.

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