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Banking (Asset Protection Scheme)

As I said in my statement and in answers to questions on it, the Treasury and its outside advisers have looked in some detail at the assets that RBS have offered and have asked to have insured. As I said to the House earlier, one of our difficulties is in trying to value such assets at a time when conditions are deteriorating. We are taking action against a background that is not static; it is moving all the time. We have made every effort to ensure that those assets have been properly looked at and properly valued.