RBS Flags Cost Cuts as Loss Triples
February 24 2017 - 2:58AM
Dow Jones News
By Max Colchester
LONDON-- Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC on Friday said it
would cut an extra GBP750 million ($951.6 million) of costs out of
the business this year as the state-controlled bank slumped to its
ninth straight annual loss.
The 70% state-owned bank said its annual net loss more than
tripled to GBP6.96 billion, as the bank put aside billions to cover
conduct issues. Revenue fell 2% to GBP12.6 billion compared with
the year earlier as the lender continued to shed businesses. The
huge loss was expected as the bank had previously announced some of
the provisions.
RBS revised its financial targets saying it would cut its cost
to income ratio to 50% by 2020, a year later than planned. It also
said it would cut an extra GBP2 billion of costs over the next four
years. The bank says it can return to profit by 2018.
The huge net loss was mostly fueled by reserves the bank set
aside to settle allegations with U.S. authorities over its role in
the sale of mortgage-backed securities. RBS also spent GBP2.1
billion on restructuring the business. Once all the restructuring
costs, fines and unwanted businesses are stripped out the bank made
an underlying operating profit of GBP4.2 billion, up 4%.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 24, 2017 02:43 ET (07:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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