Mr. Cormac McCarthy:

Ultimately, it would have required Royal Bank of Scotland to guarantee, effectively, Ulster Bank, which was the same difference as being in the guarantee, if you know what I'm saying. So ... the ... the way the guarantee was structured would have required Royal Bank of Scotland to effectively guarantee Ulster Bank and the Financial Services Authority in the UK, who was the regulator of Royal Bank of Scotland, saw that as being akin to essentially providing a UK state guarantee to Ulster Bank, which was a separately regulated and rated entity. And there were other matters. There were operational issues about appointments of directors. As you'll recall, the Government at the time insisted on appointing directors to the boards of the banks. That would have been challenging in governance terms ... although RBS could have got there with that ... but it was principally around the fact that RBS would have had to provide a guarantee for Ulster Bank ... which had ... would have had the same effect as the Government guarantee at the time.