Royal Bank of Scotland this morning announced a group loss of £3.6bn (€4.1bn) for 2009 driven by impairments on bad loans, but the global banking and markets business returned to the black. Financial News live-blogged the midday conference call with chief executive Stephen Hester and the senior management.

12:07 - After a little delay, the call commences, with RBS chairman Philip Hampton kicking things off. He goes straight to the hot topic - bonuses - and argues that the Scottish bank has led the way on reform of pay, and that the Scottish bank's compensation ratio is 27%, which he considers to be competitive.