On the surface, Stephen Hester's turnaround of Royal Bank of Scotland Group seems to be proceeding smoothly. Although the 83% government-owned UK bank reported a slightly bigger-than-expected £1.3bn loss in 2010, progress in RBS's capital, liquidity, funding and balance-sheet cleanup were all well ahead of target.

Even so, the next stage of Hester's recovery plan won't be so straightforward.