James Ashton: RBS - when will this slow clean-up end?

Compared with the record £10 billion fine that Bank of America was stung with just a few days ago, Royal Bank of Scotland’s penalty is chicken feed.

But the worrying difference is that while BoA was coughing up for US mortgage fraud carried out before the financial crash, state-rescued RBS has been found out for supplying poor mortgage advice to customers just two years ago.

Its lethargy in cracking down on the practice is reminiscent of the speed at which Lloyds got to grips with the “grand in your hand” branch sales incentives, for which it was fined £28 million late last year.

Anyone who has tried to take out a mortgage recently will have been confronted with a barrage of tricky questions such as: at what age will you retire? How much do you spend every month on entertainment?

How about another one for the lenders who continue preaching they are putting the customer first: when will this industry finally draw a line under past misdemeanours?