James Moore: This package costs too much to keep Co-op Bank's chief on board

I’m talking about the FTSE 100 giant Royal Bank of Scotland, which has continued its own transformation by ditching the overseas business of private bank Coutts (unfortunately, while RBS keeps the name, I understand that it also keeps any penalties from tax shenanigans at the Swiss bit).

It’s true that RBS’s turnaround is rather further down the road than the Co-op’s.

Regulators are more or less happy with its capital position. Nevertheless, its chief executive, Ross McEwan, still has quite a bit of work to do.

However, keeping him at it is costing RBS’s biggest shareholder — the taxpayer — quite a bit less than it’s going to cost Co-operative Bank to retain its top man.

Not least because Mr McEwan gave up £1 million of “role-based allowance” last year.

That might go some way towards restoring RBS’s battered reputation. In a very real sense, therefore, Booker and his bank’s board run the risk of damaging Co-operative’s.

These sort of packages are about as far removed from the Co-operative principles as it is possible to get.

We are told that the rate at which its customers are departing is slowing.

The bank might care to remember that “continuity” will only be served if it keeps them on board. They are far more important to the future of this business than Booker.

Unfortunately, his unconscionable package might just serve as a reminder to those who remain that their institution is now controlled not by a Co-operative but by hedge funds — where these sort of payments are par for the course.