Regulatory experts have accused the Financial Services Authority of looking to “excuse its own shortcomings” for suggesting that hostile takeovers involving banks should be banned.

The FSA yesterday called for greater powers to veto bank takeovers - and for a potential blanket ban on hostile bank M&A - in its report into failures at the Royal Bank of Scotland. It said RBS's takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro had "undoubtedly" contributed to its failure that led to a bailout from the UK government.