LONDON (AP) Executives of Royal Bank of Scotland acted with integrity in making a series of bad decisions which forced taxpayers to rescue the bank, Britain’s financial regulator said yesterday in a report which suggested some individuals could yet be barred from holding similar jobs in the future.

The Financial Services Authority said it would not take any action against past or present executives for bad decisions, notably the disastrous takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro and RBS’ aggressive expansion of investment banking.

Possible enforcement actions against individuals include private or public censure, a fine or a ban on working for any a regulated company. Companies can face fines or, in extreme situations, be closed down.

“However, the review concluded that these bad decisions were not the result of a lack of integrity by any individual and we did not identify any instances of fraud or dishonest activity by RBS senior individuals or a failure of governance on the part of the board,” the FSA said.

Ruling out enforcement action, the agency added: “However, the competence of RBS individuals can, and will, be taken into account in any future applications made by them to work at FSA regulated firms.”

The FSA did not identify any individual whose job applications might be rejected on the basis of competence.

In May, the FSA said it had agreed a settlement with Johnny Cameron, former chairman of RBS Global Markets, that he would not take another full-time job in the industry or perform any “significant influence function” such as a senior executive or board member.

The FSA said it was taking no enforcement action against Cameron, and he had not made any admissions.

The agency did not publish its full review because it contained confidential information protected by law. Investigations of other U.K. banks hit by the crisis are continuing, the FSA said.RBS shares were up 3.3 percent at 31.21 pence following the announcement.The bank welcomed the FSA decision. “RBS is wholly focused on our work to restructure the bank and rebuild value for shareholders,” the company added in a brief statement.

The British government holds 68.4 percent of the ordinary shares in RBS, and an economic interest of 83 percent.That represents the biggest taxpayer investment in shoring up the banks following the credit crisis in 2008. The government also holds about 40 percent of Lloyds Banking Group.RBS led a consortium including Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spain’s Banco Santander which paid €70.5 billion outbidding Barclays for control of ABN Amro, clinching the deal in 2007.

Former CEO Fred Goodwin was blamed for driving the takeover, which plunged RBS to a British record loss of 24.3 billion pounds ($38 billion) in 2008.

Goodwin resigned, and all of the board members at the time of the near-collapse have departed.

On his departure, Goodwin took a tax-free lump sum pension payment of 2.8 million pounds, and he is entitled annual pension payments of 342,500 pounds.