Bank watchdogs to probe Sir Fred Goodwin over alleged secret affair

THE British banking regulator will investigate whether Sir Fred Goodwin's sex life contributed to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Financial Services Authority are to liaise with RBS to find out if Sir Fred's alleged secret affair with a senior colleague had anything to do with the bank's failure.
Taxpayers had to pour £50billion into RBS after the banking giant were brought to their knees under Sir Fred's leadership.
The bank were part-nationalised with the loss of 20,000 jobs and the Government were left with a huge financial deficit.
Last night it emerged Fred the Shred may have breached his contract by hiding his affair from the board.
But RBS bosses snubbed millions of taxpayers by refusing to confirm or deny whether they knew about his secret and kept it hidden from financial regulators.
Sir Fred's affair was only revealed on Thursday when Lib Dem peer Lord Stoneham used parliamentary privilege to flout a super-injunction covering any details of the issue being reported.
The High Court then lifted a gagging order, allowing the media to reveal that married dad-of-two Sir Fred, 52, tried to hide a "sexual relationship" - but not to name his mistress or details of the relationship.
Campaigners urgently want to know whether his affair affected or hastened the bank's dramatic downfall.
Lord Oakeshott said: "I'm very concerned the whole story should be out there, should be properly investigated and we should all learn the lessons of the collapse. This was the biggest corporate crash in British history."
Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "We have a right to know the full story.
"Depending on when it happened, there are lots of ways an affair could have created the management distraction that led to RBS needing the massive bailout. " Sir Fred, who married wife Joyce in 1990, was chief executive of RBS from 2000 to 2008.
He was widely blamed for the bank's demise and became the face of the banking crisis that led to the recession.
He was nicknamed Fred the Shred because of brutal staff cuts during his time at RBS.
After it all went wrong, Sir Fred waltzed off with a £2.7million lump sum and a £700,000-a-year pension.
Grim-faced Lady Goodwin, 51, was yesterday spotted leaving the couple's £3.5million mansion in Colinton, Edinburgh, on the school run with the couple's children.
She drove a black Range Rover slowly to avoid colliding with waiting press and photographers in the narrow, private road outside her home.
She appeared to have her make-up on and her hair done but looked ashen-faced.
After returning alone, she later left the home again with a woman, thought to be her mother.
There was no sign of Sir Fred.