RBS AGM: see the archive of our live coverage of the event

1) RBS paid the wrong price for ABN Amro: RBS led a consortium which paid €71.1 billion (£64.7 billion) for the Dutch bank, and later admitted that they had overpaid by between £15 and £20 billion.

2) The wrong way to pay: the majority of the ABN Amro acquisition was funded with cash, at a time when the global financial market for heading for meltdown.

3) The wrong time: the deal was finally agreed in October 2007 at a time when the financial markets began to grind to a halt on the back on the sub-prime mortgage crisis and Northern Rock was forced to seek an emergency bailout from the Government.

4) The wrong deal: RBS had particularly wanted ABN Amro's US subsidiary, LaSalle, but was unable to prevent the sale of the business to Bank of America as had been previously agreed as part of ABN’s original plan to sell the Dutch bank to Barclays.

5) The wrong sponsorship: car-crazy Sir Fred Goodwin spent £20 million of the bank’s money sponsoring the Williams F1 team. RBS announced in February it will not renew the agreement with the team when its current contract runs out in 2010.

6) The wrong decision: weeks before he was ousted, and after the bank had accepted Government funding, Sir Fred ordered a private jet, apparently worth £35 million. The new management subsequently cancelled the order.

7) The wrong staff: Sir Philip Hampton, RBS chairman, said “only a tiny minority of staff were in any way responsible for the major credit market losses we suffered in 2008”. He added that most of them, who worked in London, Amsterdam and New York, “had now left the group”.

8) The wrong motivation: Sir Philip believes that staff have suffered from the public flogging meted out against RBS. He said: “Our staff deserve better from their top management”.

9) The wrong risk practices: Sir Philip said: “In a more symbolic way some of the practices that were accepted at the height of the boom when the bank was recording £10 billion profits, cannot be acceptable now if indeed they ever really were.”

10) The wrong management: Drawing a line under the former board, led by Sir Fred for nearly 10 years, Sir Philip said: “The past is done but this company is not. The legacy of the year will stay with us but now is the time to look forward.”

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