CHANCELLOR George Osborne has told bankers to give up their bonuses to pay international fines imposed for the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Osborne is said to have "laid down the law" to state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland as it braces itself for a major penalty from US regulators.

Senior RBS figures were warned that leaving taxpayers to cover the US penalty for its role in fixing the lending rate, which governs the price of more than $500 trillion in loans and transactions around the world, would be "totally unacceptable".