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UK bankers apologize
Bankers get a grilling from Britain's parliament for their role in the financial crisis. CNN's Jim Boulden reports.
Protest's outside, apology's inside.
"And we are extremely sorry."
The four former bosses of Britain's two biggest troubled banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, gave a little of what the members of parliament wanted to hear.
"We are profoundly, and I think I would say unreservedly, sorry at the time of events."
"There is a profound and unqualified apology for all of the distress that has been caused."
These were far cries from mere culpas, none of the four said it was their fault.
But on the day that RBS confirmed that another 2,000 job cuts, the former head, nickname Fred the Shred, for his cause cutting after 140 billion dollars worth of mergers continues to be the focus of a lot of shareholder and union anger.
"It's just too simple if you want to blame it all on me, you want to blame it all on me and close the book, that will get the job done very quickly, but it does not go anywhere close to this, because all of this."
The UK government has spent tens of billions of dollars buying stakes in these banks. The taxpayer now owns 43% of HBOS, which is merged with Lloyds TSB and 68% of RBS. The RBS board was criticised for its takeover of Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007, just as the Credit Crunch to acold.
"At that time, it seemed like a good thing to do, I bought a lot of shares on the day it happened and I thought it was a good thing to do."
Critics say ABN AMRO was a deal too far.
"You are still defending, the great position of the bank on the 16th September, and we are listening here, thinking what I gonna meet it three weeks later, the government has to put in 20 billion pounds to keep that bank going."
The bonus culture also came under scrutiny.
"There is no doubt that the bonus systems in many banks around the world have been proven to be wrong in the last 24 months."
The four men who have explained themselves before parliament on Tuesday all lost their jobs during the crisis. On Wednesday afternoon, it's the turn of those who now run Britain's banks.
Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
GLOSSARY
1. the Royal Bank of Scotland（= RBS） 蘇格蘭皇家銀行
2. HBOS 蘇格蘭哈里法克斯銀行（Halifax and Bank of Scotland，HBOS）
3. unreservedly adv.不客氣地, 率直地
4. far cry n.長距離 很遠的距離
5. culpa n.[律]疏忽, 罪
6. merger n.合并, 歸并
7. close the book 結帳
8. stakes 股份
9. Lloyds TSB 英國勞埃德銀行
10. ABN AMRO 荷蘭銀行
11. acold adj.寒冷的
12. bonus system 獎金制度,分紅制,職工獎金制度
