Terry Murden: Scotland the poorer if biggest firm becomes bit-part player

THE job losses keep on coming, now 34,000 and counting, although Scotland has been spared this time as the latest cull at RBS will fall on the much-reviled investment bankers in London, Hong Kong and the US.

But those tempted to rub their hands at having won so many scalps should think carefully about where this is heading It is one thing to point fingers at high-stakes risk-takers who gambled money they never had and built up positions they should never have held; quite another to end the careers of high-earning career bankers whose only “crime” was to be in what they thought were secure jobs in an ambitious bank.

Scotland escapes this time because it never dabbled in what some regard as the murky world of “casino” banking. Of course, there were many bad decisions, often based on investments in complex products and vehicles that too few understood.

But the bank was once the fifth biggest in the world and once valued higher than all Scotland’s other listed companies put together. Its management, led by that hate figure Sir Fred Goodwin, was cheered as it grew ever larger. And the politicians backed its growth. Alex Salmond wrote to Goodwin in 2007 wishing him well in his quest to acquire the Dutch bank ABN Amro, which was expected to be Goodwin’s, the bank’s and arguably Scotland’s crowning achievement, providing Scotland with a recognised international brand to match Apple, BMW and Microsoft.

By sharply reducing its balance sheet and its reach in the search for revenge, we risk emasculating it. By seeing it return to being a provincial operator it may find it more difficult to compete, on pricing and in winning international business and top staff.

Scotland would be the poorer for seeing its biggest company reduced to bit-part player, vulnerable to takeover by foreign predators in nations that see the folly in running down their national institutions.