RBS ran a great scam when I was at University, free 3 year railcards for signing up a student account. No one I knew ended up getting one unless they complained.
I forgot about it, and complained 6-12 months later and asked for a 2 year railcard. They denied, and basically said I shouldn't be so entitled and that the bank are doing students a favour and that I should of complained earlier.
RBS is also a bank I phoned up in tears because I couldn't manage my credit card debt when I was younger and in a bad time in my life. Was offered zero breaks. I expressed commitment to repaying the debt, but needed a couple of months breathing space on the repayments. Nope, not an option.
They are one of the shittiest banks in the world, and I'm always more than happy to tell people my experiences of them when they pop up in conversation.
* This is my opinion of the letter. Guess I have to make that explicit in this context.
Most creditors in the UK will play hardball if you talk to first line staff, but will act more reasonable if you demonstrate that you have done your homework in determining what you can actually afford to pay, partly as that implies that you likely is also aware of alternatives like a debt management plan or IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement), or ultimately bankruptcy, which may leave them without full repayment.
Clifford Chance is not just any large lawfirm - they're persistently amongst the top ten lawfirms in the world by revenue, and one of the firms making up the UK "magic circle" lawfirms (at least 3 of the others of which are also amongst the top ten in the world).
They'd bend over backwards for a bank the size of RBS, as they are a big enough behemoth that their revenue would slide very quickly if they showed any kind of spine when it came to standing up to customers that size - it's not like they could easily replace lost revenue from a client like RBS from smaller clients.
It's a problem with companies like that (both RBS and Clifford Chance) - RBS isn't just too big to fail for the UK, it's too big for a lawfirm as bloated as Clifford Chance to afford to risk their relationship with.
EDIT: In fact, not only is RBS a Clifford Chance client, but specifically the property arm of RBS (West Register) that is one of th divisions implicated in this, has used Clifford Chance. As you can see from Clifford Chance's own website [1] [2].
[1] https://www.cliffordchance.com/news/news/2012/11/clifford_ch...
[2] https://www.cliffordchance.com/news/news/2015/09/clifford-ch...
Their independent review was clearly a sham even down to the point that RBS denied to MPs that their Global Restructuring Group was being run as a profit centre for the bank. Something we now know was the deliberate intention from the top of the bank down.
As someone running a small business the idea that a bank could deliberately try to destroy its customer's profitable businesses in order to seize their assets at a knocked down rate is terrifying and should be treated as criminal matter.