US publication, Newsweek, has named the former chief executive of faltering RBS, Sir Fred Goodwin, “the world’s worst banker”. Fred the Shred has beat off stiff competition from the CEOs of fallen and infamous institutions like Lehman Brothers and pretty much every bank in Iceland to win the not-so-coveted title.

Sir Fred Goodwin stepped down in October after it emerged that he had cost RBS £50 billion in takeovers during his eight years in charge of the bank. Despite an apology a couple of weeks ago – he actually said sorry three times in the space of a few sentences, is this a first for a banker? – it seems that the world is not quite ready to forgive.

Newsweek has put his win down to his penchant for reckless, aggressive acquisitions – which had him labelled as a “deal junkie” – and the bank’s reputation for poor credit controls and huge commitment of capital to investment banking.

His other mistakes were underlined as building a £335 million headquarters in Connecticut just before the economic collapse, selling £12.3 billion worth of shares in June of this year after telling shareholders no more capital was needed and then watching the stock slump significantly three months later. RBS finally accepted a £20 billion bailout from the government last week. 

The government now has an ownership stake in the bank of 57.9% and its stock has reportedly lost 91% of its value since March 2007.

Following his repeated apologies, Sir Fred revealed that his next step in his once illustrious career as Britain’s highest paid banking chief was to “have a rest.”

While there is no doubt that Sir Fred has fallen hard, is it not strange that America has to fish for the world’s worst bankers on our side of the pond when it is home to the chief executives of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG and Citigroup?