Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported a slight rise in profits for the third quarter after the £1.1 billion sale of US bank Citizen.
The bank posted profits of £952 million, up from £896m in the same period last year. RBS earned £1.1bn on the sale of Citizen, but restructuring costs jumped to £847m and revenues fell nearly £600m to £3.04bn. RBS has also agreed to sell its remaining 20.9% stake in Citizen, which it bought for $440m nearly 30 years ago.
A slowdown in corporate banking impacted on revenues, but there was a 4.6% rise in business in its personal and commercial banking operations.
The Citizen sale is part of wider plans to pull out of a number of countries to streamline its operations and boost profitability.
