RBS wrote off £30m over sale of Liverpool

ROYAl Bank of Scotland wrote off £30 million in late payment fees to pave the way for the £300m sale of Liverpool Football Club last week, it has emerged.

Sources said the write-off was aimed at encouraging the owners of the deeply indebted club, American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillette, to sell up.

One source said: "The waiving of late payment fees was designed to incentivise the owners to sell the club. RBS's focus was on recovery of the debt."

The move was a key component in allowing Liverpool to be sold to New England Sports Ventures (NESV), which also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

RBS, 82 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, imposed so-called ticking fees, weekly multi-million pound charges that eventually mounted up to 40m, against Hicks and Gillette at the end of August to encourage them to sell.

It is understood that NESV paid 10m of the bill, but RBS waived the rest.