Mr. Gerry Fitzpatrick:

I certainly was aware. There's no doubt in terms of, again, the audit process that we start in understanding what the organisation is doing, reading board minutes, reading audit committee minutes, reading ALCO minutes are very important. In this particular paper, I think, is in the context of the way RBS was particularly managing its capital around both RBS and the Ulster Bank Group Limited. In the previous pages, on page 28, for instance, there's a reference to Ulster Bank Group having significant euro surplus capital. So, basically, the way it managed it ... it had a lot of capital. It just was whether it was in the right entity. So this transaction, which you say was designed to mitigate something, to my mind it was appropriate transaction. An organisation that has a number of licensed entities will have capital in one and perhaps risk in another and is obviously ... must retain its capital ratios appropriately, and, therefore, the transfer of loans and the risk associated with loans, into another regulated entity, as long as that entity has sufficient capital, and in this case, Ulster Bank Limited, which is FSA regulated, which we were also the auditors to, I was fully aware that that transaction was taking place and was properly reflected in the books and records of Ulster Bank Limited. So, yes, we were aware of it.

No, I didn't have concern about it as long as it was properly reflected. I would be concerned if a transaction like this happened and wasn't properly recorded in the financial statements of the two regulated entities. And I think, as explained in this document and in the earlier document, it was about efficient capital management, and that's ... nothing unusual about that. You can either shift the asset book or shift the capital. A lot of international financial service companies based in Dublin would have capital and would have loans transferred to them by other entities around their global organisations and that wouldn't be either unusual or inappropriate.