When the UK Government took a majority stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland last year to stop its possible collapse one of the unintended consequences of the move was that the British tax payer ended up owning a sizeable chunk of Britain’s best known private bank, Coutts & Co.

Public ownership presented Coutts, which is owned by RBS, with political problems, including the potential embarrassment of the Government owning a majority share in a business that needs to lavish huge sums of money on entertaining super-wealthy clients. Coutts also operates a thriving offshore wealth management business, with offices in Switzerland, Singapore and Jersey, where some clients might expect their affairs to be handled discreetly, away from the prying eye of the tax authorities.