The FINANCIAL — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) continues to deliver on its plan to build a strong, simple and fair bank for both customers and shareholders. RBS delivered against its 2015 targets.
RBS reported a loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of £1,979 million, compared with a loss of £3,470 million in 2014. This included elevated restructuring costs (£2,931 million), as the bank’s repositioning accelerated, particularly in the Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) business. Litigation and conduct costs (£3,568 million) increased as further steps were taken to clear legacy obstacles from RBS’s path to normalisation, according to RBS.
Adjusted operating profit(1) totalled £4,405 million compared with an adjusted operating profit of £6,056 million in 2014, lower primarily due to income attrition and disposal losses in the Capital Resolution business.
RBS continues to strengthen and reshape the balance sheet, building on a strong track record of delivery. Risk-weighted assets (RWAs) reduced 32%, or £113 billion, including £109 billion from the disposal of Citizens Financial Group and the accelerated run-down of Capital Resolution.
RBS intends to pay a final dividend on the Dividend Access Share (DAS) during the first half of 2016 subject to final Board and PRA approval, further normalising the capital structure of the bank and removing a constraint on the resumption of capital distributions.
Ross McEwan, RBS CEO said today:
“Our pace of progress has resulted in a set of financials that are noiser than any of us would like, but it has resulted in a much stronger and simpler bank, with a much clearer investment case.
We are delivering our eighth consecutive quarter of capital ratio growth. When I took over as CEO our capital ratio was 8.6%, today it sits at 15.5%.
We are becoming much simpler, taking £983m of costs out of the business this year and over £2bn in the last two years.
We are the biggest supporter of business in Britain with lending in Commercial Banking up £1.4bn from last year. This year will see us ramp up our support for enterprise, because if Britain’s businesses grow, then RBS grows.
In our mortgage business, lending increased 10% from last year, with £9.3bn of net mortgage lending during the year, our strongest growth in mortgages since 2009.
In each area of our strategy we are delivering – capital ratio is up, costs are down, we are backing more businesses than any other bank in Britain and challenging industry practices that are not in our customers’ interests. This is exactly what RBS should be doing.”
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