RBS set to abandon Direct Line/Churchill sales - papers

There was also speculation over the weekend that headhunters employed by the bank, which was bailed out by the taxpayer this year, have approached Mervyn Davies, the chairman of Standard Chartered, to take up the equivalent job at RBS to work with new chief executive Stephen Hester. Hester's arrival appears to have halted the sale of the insurance businesses. They were put on the block in March by the previous management - under Sir Fred Goodwin - as part of a fruitless attempt to persuade shareholders to back a massive rights issue. The government had to come to the rescue after investor...