Cable: Make RBS a national business bank

In a leaked letter to Prime Minister David Cameron and deputy Nick Clegg, Cable said the after effects of the 2008 crash could "choke off" recovery as banks fail to lend to businesses. "My suggestion is that we recognise that RBS cannot return to the market in its current shape and use it this time as a ward of the state to carve out of it a British Business Bank with a clean balance sheet and a mandate to extend lending rapidly to sound businesses," Cable wrote. After lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Cable said the bank could be used to prop up exports and "sectors ide...