By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will face angry investors in court by the end of 2016 in a legal case that is likely to see Fred Goodwin, its former boss, testify about the lender's implosion.
Sky News has learnt that RBS was told this week that litigation brought by a shareholder action group would result in a trial beginning in December 2016, almost a year earlier than the bank had sought.
The RBS Shareholder Action Group, which includes major City institutions such as M&G and Standard Life Investments as well as thousands of private investors, is suing over a £12bn rights issue launched by RBS in April 2008.
That fundraising was aimed at removing any doubts about the bank's financial strength, but ultimately proved to be only a stay of execution.
Mr Goodwin, RBS's former chief executive, was stripped of his knighthood in 2012 and has faced calls to be banned as a company director in the wake of the bank's near-collapse.
Sir Tom McKillop, the former chairman, and Guy Whittaker, the former finance director, are also named as directors in the shareholder lawsuit, which is said to seek damages of as much as £4bn.
At a case management conference this week, RBS is understood to have been ordered to accelerate the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of documents.
The named directors will have to let the court know by end January what information they intend to provide the court.
Some claimants have expressed frustration that the case will not be heard for more than eight years after the rights issue which saw them stump up £12bn.
RBS has estimated that it could spend as much as £42m in total on legal fees during the case, a figure which includes separate representation for the director defendants.
Mr Goodwin and Sir Tom stepped down in the autumn of 2008 as Alastair Darling, the then Chancellor, insisted on their resignations as a condition of the bank's rescue.
There are four main investor groups bringing claims against RBS, in which they allege that the bank misled them about the state of its finances when it raised £12bn from them in a rights issue in the spring of 2008.
Months later, RBS received an emergency £45.5bn capital injection from the Government as it came close to outright collapse.
The claimants also include a group which includes Aviva, the insurance companies; and another which is acting for dozens of institutional investors.
RBS itself is being represented in the series of shareholder lawsuits by Herbert Smith Freehills, a prominent City firm.
In a statement, RBS said: "While RBS and its former directors made some business decisions that have been criticised, this does not mean that they misled investors or acted illegally.
"We believe we have strong defences to the claims that are being brought against the Group and that is why we intend to defend these vigorously and to protect the interests of our shareholders including UK taxpayers."
Both RBS and the RBS Shareholder Action Group declined to comment.
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