News
Royal Bank Of Scotland Reports £2.2bn Losses
06/11/2009
By Lea Pachta
RBS, which is 70%-owned by taxpayers has reported a pre-tax operating loss of £2.2bn in the third quarter. This is compared to £1.9bn profit in the same period last year.
The bank has written off £3.3bn in bad debts, down from £4.7bn in the previous quarter. RBS says conditions are improving, but recovery is slow and gradual.
Stephen Hester, Group Chief Executive, comments:
"The release of our third quarter results today provides a timely reminder of why we are confident that we can restore RBS to standalone strength whilst serving customers well. Along the way we must also restore strong profitability and sustain a successful commercial spirit at RBS, without which value for all shareholders and a profitable exit for the UK taxpayer is not possible.
The results also show the headwinds we face and the legacy we are purposefully working out of. As I have repeatedly said, the journey will take some years.
This week marked a crucial milestone in RBS's recovery with announcement of the terms of the UK Asset Protection Scheme ("APS") participation and agreement in principle with the European Commission on state aid compensatory measures. While not all we wanted, we now have the tools to do our job. We greatly appreciate the steadfast support we have been given by the UK Government and taxpayers. We are completely concentrated on repaying that confidence and support by doing the job outlined for us above. The faster the pressures on us become similar to those on our competitors, the more likely we are to succeed - a goal which rather clearly aligns staff, customers, shareholders
and UK taxpayers.
Today our results show strong and even growing customer franchises and the majority of our businesses operating without surprises in the face of enormous pressures and change. They show progress in risk... continued on page two >
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