Royal Bank of Scotland's deadline for its record-breaking £12 billion rights issue has passed.

Investors had until 11am to subscribe for discounted shares under the rights issue, but the results will not be known until 7am on Monday.

The banking giant is planning to use the money raised to shore up its balance sheet after suffering hefty losses as a result of the credit crunch.

RBS shares have endured heightened volatility, as have those for rival Halifax Bank of Scotland, which is also asking shareholders for cash in a £4 billion rights issue.

Reports suggest that the RBS plans will be well-subscribed, with recent broker upgrades also helping lend the stock some support in recent days.

RBS announced in April that it was turning to shareholders for the cash injection as it sought to shore up its finances.

The move caused controversy, coming less than two months after RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin declared the bank's financial position satisfactory.

RBS, which is Britain's second biggest banking group and employs more than 100,000 in the UK, is to issue 11 new shares for every 18 existing shares at a price of 200p per share under the rights issue. That represents a discount of nearly 50 per cent on RBS's closing share price before the plans were announced, although shares have since dropped to around 254p.

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