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UK bankers apologize

Bankers get a grilling from Britain's parliament for their role in the financial crisis. CNN's Jim Boulden reports.

Protest's outside, apology's inside.

"And we are extremely sorry."

The four former bosses of Britain's two biggest troubled banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, gave a little of what the members of parliament wanted to hear.

"We are profoundly, and I think I would say unreservedly, sorry at the time of events."

"There is a profound and unqualified apology for all of the distress that has been caused."

These were far cries from mere culpas, none of the four said it was their fault.

But on the day that RBS confirmed that another 2,000 job cuts, the former head, nickname Fred the Shred, for his cause cutting after 140 billion dollars worth of mergers continues to be the focus of a lot of shareholder and union anger.

"It's just too simple if you want to blame it all on me, you want to blame it all on me and close the book, that will get the job done very quickly, but it does not go anywhere close to this, because all of this."

The UK government has spent tens of billions of dollars buying stakes in these banks. The taxpayer now owns 43% of HBOS, which is merged with Lloyds TSB and 68% of RBS. The RBS board was criticised for its takeover of Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007, just as the Credit Crunch to acold.

"At that time, it seemed like a good thing to do, I bought a lot of shares on the day it happened and I thought it was a good thing to do."

Critics say ABN AMRO was a deal too far.

"You are still defending, the great position of the bank on the 16th September, and we are listening here, thinking what I gonna meet it three weeks later, the government has to put in 20 billion pounds to keep that bank going."

The bonus culture also came under scrutiny.

"There is no doubt that the bonus systems in many banks around the world have been proven to be wrong in the last 24 months."

The four men who have explained themselves before parliament on Tuesday all lost their jobs during the crisis. On Wednesday afternoon, it's the turn of those who now run Britain's banks.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

GLOSSARY

1. the Royal Bank of Scotland（= RBS） 苏格兰皇家银行

2. HBOS 苏格兰哈里法克斯银行（Halifax and Bank of Scotland，HBOS）

3. unreservedly adv.不客气地, 率直地

4. far cry n.长距离 很远的距离

5. culpa n.[律]疏忽, 罪

6. merger n.合并, 归并

7. close the book 结帐

8. stakes 股份

9. Lloyds TSB 英国劳埃德银行

10. ABN AMRO 荷兰银行

11. acold adj.寒冷的

12. bonus system 奖金制度,分红制,职工奖金制度

文本参考中文翻译

由于金融危机，银行家被迫在议会前道歉。CNN记者Jim Boulden报道。

现在，银行家面临外部的反对，在议会上发表道歉。

“我们感到非常抱歉。”

英国两大问题银行 苏格兰皇家银行和苏格兰哈里法克斯银行的四个前任老板说了一些议会想听到的话。

“坦率的说，我们为经济危机感到深深的抱歉。”

“我们为经济危机带来的消极影响表示深深的道歉，但是这是不够的。”

但是这并是表示他们承认这是他们的疏忽造成的，四个人中没有任何一个承认是他们的错误。

但是在RBS确认，由于前领导Fred的原因，裁员2，000人，此前曾进行了价值1400亿的合并，这仍然是股东和工会愤怒的焦点。

“如果把责任全都推给我，这也太简单了，你想将一切责任让我承担，这很容易解决，但是事实并不是这样。”

英国政府投资数百亿美元购买该银行的股权，现在，纳税人持有苏格兰哈里法克斯银 43%的股权，该银行由英国劳埃德银行和RBS 68%的股权合并而成。RBS董事会由于在2007年信用紧缩的时候接管荷兰银行受到广泛批评。

“当时看上去好像还不错，我购买了许多股权，我认为这样做应该挺好的。”

批评说荷兰银行这笔交易并不靠谱。

“你仍然在保卫这个银行9月16日的位置，我们在这里倾听，我们在想，三个星期之后会是什么样的情况，政府必须投入200亿英镑帮助银行继续运转。”

奖金在制度也必须经得起推敲。

“毫无疑问，过去的24个月证明，世界上许多国家的红利制度都是错误的。”

周二在议会面前检讨自己的四个人在经济危机期间都失去了工作。周三下午，轮到现在接管英国银行的人进行检讨。