Campaigners have protested after it emerged that Fred Goodwin and other former executives at the helm when Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) collapsed will not face prosecution.
A five year-long investigation found "insufficient evidence" to charge any individual.
The probe by Scottish prosecutors looked at the sale of shares in the bank just months before it was forced to seek a £46bn taxpayer-funded bailout.
Those who had invested subsequently suffered huge losses.
RBS said that it had "co-operated fully" with the investigation and noted the outcome.
But Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, described the decision as a “monumental injustice”.
Rob MacGregor, the union’s national finance officer, said: “It is staggering that eight years after the near implosion of RBS no one has faced criminal charges. This decision not to proceed with formal charges is a monumental injustice.
“While figures such as Fred Goodwin avoid being held to account, it is our members and the bank’s customers who have been left to deal with the fallout of their actions.
“Our members across the banks are calling for a full public inquiry into RBS and the collapse of the finance sector in 2008. Such an inquiry must include the voices of trade unions and civil society, and it must have the authority to finally bring those responsible to book.”
The probe looked at RBS’s decision to offer new shares to existing shareholders in 2008.
The move came just months after RBS bought Dutch bank ABN Amro for £49bn, one of the biggest takeovers in banking history.
In 2011 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) concluded that poor decisions, including over the mammoth purchase, had triggered RBS's collapse.
The probe was started when the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland ordered an investigation into banking irregularities in Scotland in late 2011.
A Crown Office spokesman said that there had been a "thorough, independent investigation".
He added that the probe had been "extremely complex" and involved detailed consideration of “whether there was any evidence of criminal conduct associated with the rights issue”.
In all more than 160,000 documents were analysed by a team of specialist forensic accountants and banking experts, supervised by the Serious and Organised Crime Division.
The investigation also involved the co-operation of financial regulators and banking institutions, including the Financial Conduct Authority, which replaced the FSA, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Reporting Council.
The Crown Office statement added: "Following careful examination of all the evidence seen to date, Crown Counsel have decided that there is insufficient evidence in law of criminal conduct either in relation to RBS as an institution or any directors or other senior management involved in the rights issue.
"If any further evidence comes to light which is relevant to this enquiry it will be considered by the Crown and we reserve the right to make further enquiry, if considered appropriate."
An RBS spokesman said: "We co-operated fully with this investigation and we note today's decision."
Mr Goodwin was eventually stripped of his knighthood and lost a significant proportion of his almost £700,000-a-year pension.
But no senior RBS official has ever been prosecuted.
RBS is still more than 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer.
RBS said in a statement: “We co-operated fully with this investigation and we note today’s decision.”
Separately, RBS has drawn up plans to axe 200 jobs as it cuts back its branch network.
The bank intends to scrap clerical roles in Scotland, Wales or south-west England, which will also lead to a number of branch closures.
RBS has cut around 1,350 posts out of a workforce of 12,000 staff in its branch network since mid-March.
The move is part of the bank's plans to slim down from a sprawling international bank to a UK-focused lender.
The bank currently operates 1,093 RBS and NatWest branches.
RBS said: "We review our branch network regularly to make sure the services we provide are appropriate for each local community, based on customer usage and other ways to bank in the local area.
"Where we do have to make the difficult decision to close a branch we will always tell our staff and customers first."
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