Bankers "profoundly sorry"

By Steve Slater

LONDON (Reuters) - A quartet of top bankers apologised for mistakes that brought Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS to the brink of collapse, saying the sector should rethink its increasingly unpopular habit of paying lavish bonuses.

Politicians said Tuesday the former bankers were "in denial" about the scale of their mistakes and accused HBOS of ignoring warnings that it was growing too fast, citing evidence supplied by a whistleblower from the bank.

RBS's acquisition of ABN AMRO was "a bad mistake," former Chairman Tom McKillop told the politicians, saying he was sorry the deal -- a major source of RBS's problems -- happened just before the credit crisis shocked banks across the world.

"You've destroyed a great British bank," Conservative MP Michael Fallon told Fred Goodwin, the RBS chief executive ousted after the government came to the rescue by taking a 70 percent stake in the bank.

The cross-party committee of members of parliament quizzed the four amid fierce media criticism and a growing backlash against bankers and their lavish perks, after the government spent 37 billion pounds to bail out the two banks.

"(The bankers) are not going to be signing on for jobseekers' allowance any time soon," said Cath Speight, part of a small group of trade union protestors outside.

"Our members are going to want to know how they pay their mortgage when they've lost their job through no fault of their own," said Speight.

RBS said Tuesday it was cutting up to 2,300 UK jobs.