It did not take long for the pundits to start talking about fat cats.

With news of the £9.6m pay package for Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester swirling through the corridors of business and politics, everyone from the trade union Unite to Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, was talking of a culture of excess. The banks, they said - and worst of all one with a 70 per cent government stake - had failed to learn the lessons of the financial crisis.