Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland grew into one of the world’s biggest banking groups through aggressive acquisitions, but overstretched itself when it tried to buy Dutch banking giant ABN Amro in 2007. The British government pumped 45 billion pounds (US$73 billion) into RBS to keep it afloat in 2008, leaving it 82 per cent state-owned. As of November 2012, the taxpayer faced a loss of 19 billion pounds on the investment.