TO be a top banker, one would assume that you had to be pretty good with figures.

So how can any banker explain these figures: a company makes £8.2bn loss – the sixth consecutive year of stratospheric losses – and yet its leading employees are rewarded with £576m in bonuses.

These figures don’t add up.

Here’s another mystifying figure.

Royal Bank of Scotland – the company in question – is more than 80 per cent owned by taxpayers.

And yet there is nothing they, or their representatives in government, can do to rein in this great unfairness.

In fact, taxpayers don’t only own most of the bank, they saved it six years ago by bailing it out. Without taxpayers, it would not exist. Without taxpayers, those top bankers would not have jobs and so would not be receiving their bonuses.

No wonder Business Secretary Vince Cable is fuming – his impotence is embarrassing.

Labour is talking again about its tax on bonuses, which may have some merit, but really these figures show that the culture at the top of the banking industry has not changed.

Some bankers are still getting bonuses of more than 100 per cent of their salary. What sort of people are they that they can only get motivated by the prospect of earning extra millions on top of their already gigantic monthly pay cheques?

The only conclusion one can draw from these figures is that these people are motivated solely by greed.

And yet it was greed that caused the collapse in 2008.

New RBS chief executive Ross Mc- Ewan announced welcome changes yesterday so users of his bank find it simpler and fairer. But until the culture at the top changes, it will be impossible for him to rebuild trust.