ACCORDING to the Sir Elton John song, "sorry" seems to be the hardest word.

Not so though, it appears, for the UK banking sector, in which various forms of apology seem to be de rigueur.

In all-too-familiar fashion, "sorry" appears to once again be becoming the theme of the latest bank reporting season in the UK, either in terms of the actual word itself or the general sentiment being expressed by the sector's top brass.

For the avoidance of doubt, that is most definitely not to say that those senior banking industry figures who have been saying "sorry" in recent years are being over-apologetic.

Anything but, in fact. There is plenty of room for penance, not necessarily on their own account, depending on whether or not they were in charge during the periods in which particular events occurred at their institutions, but certainly on behalf of the banks they head.

We have had mis-selling of payment protection insurance and complex business loans on a jaw-dropping scale, information technology problems that have left customers without money, and scandals over foreign exchange trading and approaches to tax avoidance.

And then there have been the many tens of thousands of job losses implemented by the UK banks as staff have paid the price for the behaviour of the movers and shakers in the global financial sector.

Unfortunately, nearly seven years since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers brought us to the brink, these job cuts show little sign of abating.

Meanwhile, the bonus gravy train rolls on, unstoppable it appears. The bonuses seem to be a sorry fact of life in the banking sector, with politicians around the world seemingly unable, and perhaps to a degree unwilling, to do anything to change this reality.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is about 80 per cent-owned by the UK taxpayer as a result of its bail-out with tens of billions of pounds of state funding, yesterday unveiled a bottom-line loss of £3.5 billion for 2014.

The bank's accounts also revealed bonuses totalling £421 million.

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan conceded in a radio interview that people were "quite right" to regard the sum of money the bank was handing out in bonuses as "outrageous". His tone in this regard certainly sounded apologetic, even if did not change the actuality of the bonuses.

He himself is waiving his right to £1m of remuneration. However, this is a small drop in the overall bonus pool at the bank.

And, given the scale of the job cuts he is overseeing, it is surely the very least he could do. Royal Bank of Scotland made it plain as it announced its latest annual results that there was plenty of restructuring to come, meaning many more job cuts.

This notion of executives reining in their own remuneration at a time when they are axing jobs is perhaps viewed as a bit old-fashioned. But surely it is the right thing to do.

All too often these days in the UK quoted company arena, it seems the opposite of this example of simple good manners holds true, with executives' bonuses apparently increasing as they reduce staff costs. So, while it might be the very least he should do, Mr McEwan does deserve some credit for showing restraint.

Much of the focus in Royal Bank of Scotland's results statement was on a major scaling-back of its investment banking operation. But Mr McEwan has made no secret of the fact that heavy investment in technology, including systems to enable people to transact with ease on mobile devices, will result in reduced employment in the mainstream retail banking operations.

Back in April 2013, some months before he took over the top role at Royal Bank of Scotland, Mr McEwan told The Herald: "Any restructure is not pleasant. The day you think those are pleasant experiences is the day you should get out of the business."

Again, it is good to hear a degree of empathy expressed.

However, this will be cold comfort for those employees dependent on Royal Bank of Scotland for their livelihoods.

These employees have had a difficult last seven years, characterised by wave after wave of job cuts. And many of the longer-serving employees will have had their life savings all but wiped out, or reduced considerably in value, by the plunge in the RBS share price in the run-up to, and in the immediate wake of, its near-collapse in autumn 2008 when Fred Goodwin was chief executive.

These employees invested heavily in sharesave schemes, and also received significant parts of their remuneration in the form of Royal Bank of Scotland equity.

It is hoped Mr McEwan will bear all of this in mind as he proceeds with his restructuring of the bank.

It would appear likely that he will not have his troubles to seek in terms of his stated aim of making the bank a better place to work at the same time as cutting staff numbers.

However, in terms of challenges, it is not only Royal Bank of Scotland that continues to face, to use one of Mr McEwan's somewhat euphemistic pieces of imagery, "bumps in the road".

The UK Government might have managed to cut its stake in Bank of Scotland owner Lloyds Banking Group, which reports results today, through sales of tranches of shares. But Lloyds has faced huge costs for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

Earlier this week, at the Treasury Select Committee, HSBC's chairman and chief executive apologised for "unacceptable" practices at its Swiss private bank in the middle of the last decade, which helped clients to avoid tax.

Appearing before MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said this had caused "damage to trust and confidence" in the bank. Glasgow-born chairman Douglas Flint said he felt "very ashamed" over the events.

Some financial sector figures, and others, have railed against what they have claimed is "banker-bashing" by the public in recent years. Such characterisation of the public's justifiable annoyance is, however, just plain ridiculous.

It is the ordinary people, among them rank-and-file bank staff, who have picked up the tab for the mistakes of individuals who have held roles in the sector's top echelons over the years.

In 2008, we knew the banking sector was in for a long haul. But surely even the doomsayers would have thought we would, by now, be in a much better place than we are. It is a sorry state of affairs indeed. Or, as Sir Elton sang in his 1976 classic: "It's sad, so sad. It's a sad, sad situation. And it's getting more and more absurd."