The Royal Bank of Scotland has teetered on the brink of collapse around three times over the last decade and, according to Ian Fraser, this is all down to the revolving door of the Scottish lender's bosses, which have each had their hand in the beleaguered bank.

Speaking to IBTimes TV, Fraser told us about how from 1990, George Mathewson "sowed the seeds of destruction" for RBS, when he handed over the lender, which was left virtually bankrupt at the time, to Fred Goodwin in 2000.

"One of the key errors that [Goodwin] made was to pursue scale, for its own sake, he was desperate to protect the bank from takeover and he believed that best the way to do that was to grow the balance sheet, through acquisitions and organic growth. But this became an obsession with him and his management team," said Fraser.

"He also ruled, with what it's been called, a reign of terror, [which ran the bank on fear]. His immediate managers were scared of him, scared of missing targets. What tended to happen is that they would be set very stretching targets and in order to achieve those, corners were cut."

Fraser has been a journalist for over 25 years, including seven years at the Sunday Herald in Glasgow. He has also taught at the University of Stirling and has made six documentaries with the BBC, including RBS; the bank that ran out of money.

Speaking to IBTimes TV about his latest book, Shredded: Inside RBS – The Bank that Broke Britain, Fraser also didn't pull any punches when it came to his thoughts on the management and culture at RBS under Stephen Hester, and now, Ross McEwan.