RBS' staff bonus rush wipes £1bn off shares

Of 650m shares awarded to employees on Monday for their performance in 2009, more than half were half were sold off immediately. Staff had the choice to take their pay-out in stock, but the majority chose to sell out immediately for a windfall of about £140m, according to the Daily Mail. The news helped send RBS shares tumbling 1.78p or 4.4p to a seven-month low of 38.5p, wiping more than £1bn off its market value. After Lloyds' shares closed 1.235p lower to 47.1625p because of the mounting eurozone debt crisis, taxpayers were running a loss of nearly £15bn on their combined stakes...