Timeline: RBS set to pay heavy fines over Libor rigging

Royal Bank of Scotland is set to pay large fines for its role in rigging the Libor interest rate.

April 3, 2007 - RBS leads a consortium along with Fortis and Spain's Santander to buy Dutch bank ABN AMRO. In October, the consortium wins a bidding war against Barclays for ABN AMRO with a 70-billion-euro offer, making it the biggest banking takeover in history. The takeover comes just before markets slump as the subprime credit crisis takes hold.

April 2008 - RBS announces a record 12-billion-pound rights issue to cover a potential 5.9-billion-pound writedown on the value of its toxic assets.

October/November 2008 - Britain is forced to pump 20 billion pounds into the lender to shore up its capital position. Stephen Hester is named to replace Fred Goodwin as CEO. The government increases its stake to 58 percent after injecting a further 15 billion pounds into the lender and to 70 percent in January 2009.

February 2009 - RBS reports a loss of 24.1 billion pounds for 2008, the biggest in British corporate history.

November 2009 - Britain announces it will inject another 25 billion pounds to prop up both RBS and Lloyds, taking the taxpayers' stake in RBS to over 80 percent.

December 2010 - Goodwin and other RBS executives during the financial crisis escape punishment by the Financial Services Authority despite what the regulator describes as a "series of bad decisions" in 2007 and 2008.

December 2011 - The FSA publishes its report, begun in 2009, into RBS's near failure. The report blames RBS's "poor management decisions" and flaws within the FSA itself. It also recommends tougher rules to ensure that in future banking executives can face "personal consequences" if a bank fails.

August 2012 - A joint New York-Connecticut investigation of Libor sends subpoenas to Royal Bank of Scotland, and several other banks. The subpoenas seek communication between executives related to possible collusion that may have played a role in alleged manipulation of the Libor rate.

September 2012 - RBS increases its target for job cuts at its investment banking business to 3,800 by the end of 2013. Hester has already axed 34,000 jobs since arriving at RBS.

January 2013 - RBS prepares to slash bonuses and may consider sacking executives over the bank's role in fixing the Libor rate.

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit, Editing by Mark Potter)