Sir Fred Goodwin is on the verge of completing the impossible. From the moment Royal Bank of Scotland’s chief executive approached ABN Amro in April about a break-up bid for the Dutch banking group, he has confounded the critics.

Before the RBS consortium appeared, no European bank of any size had succumbed to a cross-border hostile bid. No large lender had ever been broken up into its component parts. No bidder had ever stumped up as much cash as the €66bn (£46bn) the consortium, which includes Santander and Fortis, promised to raise.