On june 12th the City's elite were gathered in St Paul's Cathedral to watch a debate on morality in banking between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Antony Jenkins, the boss of Barclays ("Saint Antony" to some newspapers, for his efforts to clean up a scandal-tainted bank). Few were paying much attention. Their BlackBerrys were buzzing with news of a fallen angel.The Royal Bank of Scotland (rbs) abruptly announced that its chief executive, Stephen Hester, would leave this year, ahead of a planned sale of the government's 81% stake in the bank next year (and a day before it announced swingeing job cuts). The Treasury suggested his departure was mutually agreed. But Mr Hester refused to play along. On a conference call he said he had wanted to stay and that it had been the board's decision for him to leave. The chancellor, George Osborne, probably had at least a hand in pushing him out.
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