Separately, RBS is having to pay compensation for two mis-selling scandals: mis-selling payment protection insurance, and mis-selling specialist insurance called interest rate swaps to small businesses.

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The banks have been hit by scandal, including attempts to rig the Libor interest rate and the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

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The bank, along with most of the other major UK High Street lenders, has also been found culpable in recent years of mis-selling unnecessary payment protection insurance to mortgage borrowers, and overly complex, over-priced interest rate and currency hedges to small businesses.

BBC: Barclays boss tells staff 'sign up to ethics or leave'

Like other banks, Barclays was heavily involved in manipulating LIBOR and in the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and interest rate swaps.

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The subliminal message from their questioning of key witnesses seems to be that they will recommend some pretty robust measures to clean up British banking - because they are not convinced that enough has been done after scandals over the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and interest swaps to address the problem of serious misconduct.

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Unlike fixed-interest securities, stocks can potentially provide a considerable degree of inflation protection.

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Call it a speculative mania if you must, but zero interest rates are forcing otherwise cautious cash savers the world over to seek out hard-asset protection for their wealth.

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