Commenting on today's (17 December) news that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may face a £350m fine following the Libor scandal, Paul Daly, Corporate Accountability Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

"This year RBS has reported a £1.5bn half year loss, increased its PPI pot for customers reclaiming unnecessary insurance RBS knowingly mis-sold, and now the bank faces a fine for Libor rate fixing. It is time for RBS to shape up and take care of taxpayers' £45bn bail out.

"RBS needs to clean up its act, stop funding environmentally catastrophic projects like the Canadian tar sands, and start investing taxpayers' money responsibly.

"We need an urgent rethink about the role of the banking sector in society. We need to move away from a focus on profit which promotes predatory, aggressive banking and towards a system that supports local businesses and economies. Our publicly owned banks should be serving the needs of society not safeguarding the bonuses of those at the top."

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact: Per Fischer, Press Office, Friends of the Earth Scotland
 t: 0131 243 2719

Notes to Editors

1. RBS expected to announce £350m Libor fine:
www.scotsman.com/business/banking/rbs-could-face-350m-fine-from-us-watchdog-as-decision-looms-on-libor-1-2694941
and
www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rbs-set-to-agree-350m-payment-for-libor-scandal-8421037.html

2. Friends of the Earth Scotland's RBS campaign:
www.foe-scotland.org.uk/cleanuprbs

3. Canadian tar sands project, the most destructive project on earth:
www.foe-scotland.org.uk/tarsands

4. Friends of the Earth Scotland is:
* Scotland's leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups - covering every continent  
www.foe-scotland.org.uk