Blow for RBS as hit with €18m fine

Britain’s financial regulator has fined Royal Bank of Scotland for selling mortgages without checking if customers could afford them, undermining chief executive Ross McEwan’s efforts to repair the bank’s image.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said yesterday it had fined RBS, 81%-owned by the British government, £14.5m (€18m) for failing to ensure advice given to customers between June 2011 and March 2013 was suitable.

The mortgage failure is particularly embarrassing for Mr McEwan because, unlike other scandals to hit the bank, it happened on his watch. Mr McEwan was appointed to lead RBS’s retail division in August 2012 before becoming chief executive in October 2013.