Sir Fred Goodwin and Sir Tom McKillop have been named in several class-action lawsuits, filed in New York, accusing the former RBS board of misleading investors over a 2007 rights issue, the Financial Times reports.

The knighted pair were warned that admitting to specific mistakes over governance of risk management could be “an invitation to litigants”.

After much legal intervention, the apologies left most members of the select committee unimpressed, in part thanks to the “touch of arrogance” when the bankers “apologised for the problems but did not apologise for their part in the problems”.