Should axes swing at Royal Bank of Scotland? After all, the UK’s second largest bank by market capitalisation announced its first ever loss at its half-year results on Friday. Shareholders have also watched their stock fall 60 per cent since last year’s highs – twice the decline of the wider European banking sector – and were forced to stump up £12bn in the biggest rights issue in UK history. And what to make of outbidding UK rival Barclays, midway through last year, for the second-rate ABN Amro, just as the financial system was sinking into the abyss?

It is, therefore, reasonable to ask what more a management team has to do over a 12-month period to get the chop. Bank chief executives elsewhere have been given the boot for lesser crimes; in the US at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and in Europe at Fortis. As frustrated investors have observed, the UK stands out in that no heads have rolled in spite of far worse shareholder returns at banks such as Barclays, RBS, Bradford & Bingley and HBOS.