RBS pays largest-ever fine for crisis era misconduct
(15 August 2018 – UK) Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $4.9 billion to settle US claims brought against it by the Department of Justice that it misled investors on residential mortgage-backed securities.
The penalty is the largest-ever imposed on a bank for misconduct leading up to the financial crisis. RBS announced in May that it had reached a settlement in principle.
Despite a damning report from the DoJ to the contrary, RBS disputes the allegations and does not admit wrongdoing, although the bank said in a statement it was happy to move on.
The DoJ settlement and the resumption of dividends were two of the last big milestones in RBS’s decade-long journey back to normality. The looming fine had weighed on the bank’s share price and prevented it from paying out to its shareholders.