South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has accused the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) of the “ultimate insult” to staff and customers of recently closed bank branches after the Government owned bank announced that profits have more than doubled this year.

The company recorded profits last week of £1.6bn just weeks after the final closure of 60 branches in Scotland- including 15 that serve the South of Scotland.

South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth said, “The celebrations of RBS over the doubling of their profits and the decision to bump their Chief Executive’s pay up by £100,000 to £3.6m is the ultimate insult to the hundreds of staff and customers across the South of Scotland who have just lost their jobs and their local RBS bank branch”

“RBS is owned by the UK Government and I have consistently called on them and the Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell to intervene to stop these closures. As RBS’s major shareholder the UK Government could and should have stopped these banks branches being axed and the huge profits RBS have made show how unnecessary these closures were.”

“The public put £45 billion into RBS to bail it out following the financial crisis, yet it seems only RBS’s boss and shareholders have seen the rewards of that investment with local people losing out as a result of the greed of bankers and the inaction of the UK Government.”