Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Stephen Hester: "The starting point for RBS was unenviable" Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced losses for 2009 of £3.6bn ($5.5bn), after struggling with billions of pounds of bad loans.Despite the losses, the bank is set to announce it will pay bonuses totalling £1.3bn to its staff. But the bank's head, Stephen Hester, said it had lost money by not paying big bonuses to retain productive staff. The UK taxpayer owns 84% of RBS after the government bailed out the bank at the end of 2008. 'Experiment'Chief executive Mr Hester told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've had a small experiment in this respect... some of our best-performing people have been leaving in their thousands. "The people who left us last year, I believe, would have increased our profits by up to £1bn beyond the ones that we've got." Mr Hester has decided not to take his own bonus, which would have been £1.[Read more...]