A group of shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland – the parent firm of Coutts - is suing RBS
and four former directors for losses they say they suffered when the bank’s
plight led to it being bailed out by the UK taxpayer in 2008, media reports said.

The RBoS Shareholders Action Group has issued proceedings
against the Edinburgh-headquartered bank, Fred Goodwin (its former CEO), Tom
McKillop, Johnny Cameron and Guy Whittaker, in the chancery division of Britain's High
Court. They are seeking to recover billions of pounds lost on the value of
their shares ahead of RBS’s bailout.

The final claim for compensation could be as much as £4
billion ($6.02 billion), the shareholder group said, according to Reuters.

The group, which comprises some 12,000 ordinary shareholders
and 100 institutions, alleges that RBS misled investors about its financial
health during a £12 billion share sale conducted six months before its October
2008 bailout. It also says that the bank and its former employees omitted to
include critical information in the prospectus.