If Samuel Beckett had written a dystopian play set in a bank branch, its protagonists would surely have been employees of Royal Bank of Scotland, passing endless hours waiting for its misconduct penalties to be concluded. (It wouldn't, though, have been called Waiting For Goodwin.)

Whether it has been the sale of taxpayers' stake in the company, delays to justice for businesses mistreated by its Global Restructuring Group (GRG), or the wait to settle the RMBS mis-selling ‎tab dreamt up by the US Department of Justice, RBS's affairs have long resembled a Beckettian nightmare.‎