IF the Royal Bank of Scotland wanted to draw a line in the sand under the excesses of the past and promote a new, responsible ethos, it could hardly have picked a more symbolic setting than the plush executive wing of its Gogarburn headquarters, the shrine to the hubris of former chief executive Fred Goodwin.
RBS announced yesterday that the halls and offices once occupied by the bank's high fliers are to be turned into a hub for entrepreneurs. It will house staff from organisations such as Entrepreneurial Spark, Business Gateway, The Princes Trust Scotland and We Are The Future. They and others will benefit from free office space and wifi.
When the bank's campus HQ on the outskirts of Edinburgh was opened in 2005, at a cost of £350m, few could have foreseen how swift and sharp RBS's fall from grace would be. One winces now when one recalls the statement the following year from then chairman Sir Tom McKillop that the bank intended to "play our part as a force for good in society".
The reality, of course, was very different. But if RBS is to consign the past to history, it must at last live up to that pledge. This is but a very small step on the long road back.
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