RBS reports 8th consecutive annual loss
(29 February 2016 – United Kingdom) Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) posted its eighth consecutive annual loss driven by restructuring costs and conduct charges. The also delayed the prospect of any dividend payouts.
RBS logged a £1.98 billion (A$3.85 billion) annual net loss, 43 percent less than the year before. The bank, which is 73 percent state owned, said its bottom line was heavily impacted by £6.5 billion of restructuring and litigation charges.
In a statement, the bank warned that its previous target to start returning cash to shareholders by the first quarter 2017 would now likely be pushed back due to “the potentially elongated period” to resolve a looming settlement with US authorities over the sale of high-risky mortgage-backed securities.
RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan bemoaned a “set of financials that are noisier than anyone of us would have liked.” Crossing off the list of past misdeeds is taking longer than hoped. The bank warned that it may have to make further “substantial” provisions for the US case during the year.
RBS’s underlying operating profit for 2015 decreased from £6 billion to £4.4 billion as it took losses on the sale of unwanted assets. Total income for the year fell 14 percent to £13 billion.
In 2015, the government started selling down its holding in the lender at a loss. But since the start of the year, RBS’s share price has plummeted another 20 percent, discouraging further share sales.
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