In brief, the rights issue failed miserably, very few shareholders took up the rights issue, thus leaving 72% of the issue with the underwriters. Those same banks that earned the commission for underwriting the issue.

Also, those same banks underwrote on the condition that there was a holding period (in effect they could not sell). So in truth, they ended up still holding the shares when the company was nationalised.

i.e. The banks lost on the deal, period.

Banks exist as long a confidence is high, when confidence fails so do they. No bank, even today could survive every deposit holder withdrawing their deposit, none.

The real saviour of the banks was HMG, they acted (somewhat belatedly) and gave depositors the confidence to stay invested.

Perhaps compensation should come from the media, because it was a media frenzy that created the run on the banks in the first place.