(English) HMP Wayland governor ‘beaten by inmate in canteen’
05.08.2016
(English) Edinburgh’s festivals kick off
05.08.2016
عرض كل

(English) RBS blames legacy issues for £2bn loss

Royal Bank of Scotland has reported a £2bn loss for the first six months of the year, which the chief executive blamed on “legacy issues”.

It compares to a £179m loss in the same period last year and includes £1.3bn of litigation and conduct costs.

Ross McEwan said RBS had spent the past two years dealing with problems at the bank, which received a £45.5bn bail-out during the financial crisis.

He maintained that RBS was “making progress on a lot of legacy issues”.

Mr McEwan told the BBC: “We set the strategy up three years ago, we are half way through the programme and certainly 2015 and 2016 were the years we set aside to try and tidy up as much of these legacy activity as we can.”

RBS, which is still 73%-owned by the taxpayer, said it had scrapped plans to split off its 300-branch Williams & Glyn business after previously considering listing the unit on the stock exchange. Restructuring the business cost RBS £345m in the first six months to June.

It is understood that Santander UK is in talks about buying Williams & Glyn, which marks a return for the Spanish bank after it pulled out of deal more than four years ago because of issues associated with the IT system.

Total restructuring charges for the RBS group reached £630m in the first half and are expected to reach more than £1bn for the full year.

Over the six months, RBS set aside a further £400m to compensate customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), taking its total costs related to the scandal towards £5bn.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a deadline of June 2019 for people to make claims against the banking industry.

Banks have so far paid out £24bn in PPI compensation, while the five biggest banks in the UK have set aside about £33bn to deal with the total compensation bill.

Commenting on when the bank will put its legacy issues behind it, Mr McEwan said: “This is the issue when you do have difficulties of this nature. Some of them do date back 10 years. Some of the PPI issues are dating back to 1993 that we’re having to resolve, as is the industry.

He added: “The core thing for me is that we’ve got a very strong bank here that can take these shocks.” However, he admitted that he did not plan for a further £400m payment on PPI.

اترك تعليقاً

لن يتم نشر عنوان بريدك الإلكتروني. الحقول الإلزامية مشار إليها بـ *