RBS ASSETS AND UNITED KINGDOM LIABILITIES

That this House notes with alarm the contents of the HM Treasury report, Royal Bank of Scotland: details of Asset Protection Scheme and launch of the Asset Protection Agency, published on 7 December 2009; remains extremely concerned that United Kingdom taxpayers are currently underwriting more than £167 billion of RBS toxic assets in the United States, Ireland, and the Middle East and that out of a global total of £281.9 billion of assets RBS has placed under taxpayer protection, include the overdrafts on 3.2 million British bank accounts and 70,000 UK mortgages at an average loan-to-value ratio of an extremely high 95 per cent., a vast portfolio of loans to Irish businesses and customers, including £2.9 billion worth of negative equity mortgages throughout Ireland, some £3.1 billion of loans to hedge fund managers, almost half of whom were based in the Cayman Islands and a third in the United States, almost £4 billion worth of shipping loans secured against oil tankers and container ships, and £39 billion in derivatives; further notes that RBS is one of the biggest global investors in unsustainable fossil fuel power plants and carbon-intensive transport projects; believes that these reckless and anti-environmental uses of investment capital were carried out by many of the same bankers now demanding end-of-year bonuses of up to £1,000,000; believes their activities have been counter to the national sustainability strategy; and calls on the Government to use its shareholding in RBS via UK Financial Investments Ltd to disband RBS's investment portfolio, and to re-direct investment into sustainable, low carbon technologies.