Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has said that RBS is "ahead of course" in its strategy to turn around the bank.

He was speaking after the taxpayer backed bank announced an attributable loss of £2bn in 2011, up from a loss of £1.1bn in 2010.

Mr Hester told the Today programme's Evan Davis that RBS had to "defuse the largest balance sheet risk time bomb in history and that creates losses".

He went on to say that the government will "never get its money back" unless third party investors want to buy shares, and they are working on making shares in the bank attractive.

When asked about news that the bank is to unveil a £400bn bonus pool for its investment bankers, Mr Hester said that bonuses in the investment bank are down by more than profits and are down by 42% overall.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.