George Osborne has asked Treasury officials to review the case for splitting the Royal Bank of Scotland into a good bank and a bad bank. His action follows a recommendation by the independent Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards that the government should consider acquiring severely impaired assets from RBS. This is presented as an approach that would encourage the “good” RBS to increase lending to the UK economy, and as a prelude to the sale of the taxpayer stake in the bank. The chancellor can save his officials a great deal of time – and avoid the consequences of blighting RBS with continuing uncertainty – if he accepts that such a strategy is not worth pursuing.
英國財政大臣喬治•奧斯本(George Osborne)要求財政部官員研究將蘇格蘭皇家銀行(Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS)分拆爲一家「好銀行」和一家「壞銀行」的可行性。在此之前，獨立的英國議會銀行業標準委員會(Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards)建議，政府應當考慮收購RBS嚴重受損的資產。這一建議是作爲刺激RBS的優質業務部門擴大對英國經濟貸款規模的一種手段而提出的，此外也是出售英國納稅人所持該行股份的前奏。奧斯本可以爲手下官員省下大量時間——並避免出現RBS因持續不斷的不確定性而被摧毀的後果——前提是他能認識到採取分拆RBS得不償失。