Collapse of RBS

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“What goes up, must come down” – Isaac Einstein
RBS did indeed go up, in fact, saying that it went to the top of the food chain won’t be an understatement. But it also came down, crashing.
RBS was a market leader. The best at what they did. The best at acquisitions. And this is also what left them nowhere to go when credit crunch took centre stage. The acquisitions made life unbearable and walls started to close in on RBS. The acquisitions had left them stretched – 26 companies in the space of six years to be exact.
In April 2008, RBS had already asked the investors to pump in £12 Billion after unveiling another £5.9bn of credit crunch write-downs. The bank says in a statement that it has marked down £5.9bn of assets and dividends for 2008 will also be cut. Britain’s biggest rights issue also heaps pressure on chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin but he stays adamant and dismisses any talks of him resigning and failure.
August 2008 was a critical month where RBS showed signs that were promising, in a sense that they were indeed falling hard. It had been evident for two years and the acqu...

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