RBS kicks off stock market sale of US arm Citizens May 12, 2014 RBS PRESSED ahead with its plan to sell off its US arm Citizens, last night filing the first official documents in the process of floating the bank on the New York stock market. Analysts believe Citizens could be worth as much as $15bn (£8.9bn), and RBS is floating off at least 25 per cent this [...]
RBS unveils £1.6bn first quarter profit May 2, 2014 RBS saw pre-tax profit hit £1.64bn in the first quarter of this year – a 98 per cent increase from 2013. The state-backed lender's operating profit jumped to £1.5bn from £747m a year earlier, as operating costs fell and impairment charges diminished by almost two-thirds. Chief executive Ross McEwan, who's been leading the bank's latest [...]
RBS’ plan to pay bonuses twice that of salaries blocked by UKFI April 25, 2014 RBS has said this morning that the UKFI, the body that manages the government’s 81 per cent stake in it, has confirmed it’d block a proposal which would mean the bank could pay bonuses twice that of employees’ salaries. From the statement: UKFI has informed the Board that it will vote against any resolution which [...]
RBS to trim £65m from its cost base by cutting contractor pay April 22, 2014 RBS is reducing contractors’ pay by 10 per cent from the end of this month as its cost-cutting programme gets underway, City A.M. has learned. The bank wants to make savings of £1bn by the end of the year, and this move should contribute up to £65m towards that goal. All of the roughly 11,000 [...]
Clifford Chance finds no evidence of systemic fraud at RBS April 17, 2014 State-backed bank RBS has today responded to a report by Lawrence Tomlinson, which alleged that the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) was systematically defrauding small business customers. Clifford Chance was appointed to investigate the claims made, and RBS state that the investigation has "concluded that there was no evidence to support this damaging and serious [...]
RBS clears path to dividends April 9, 2014 RBS has agreed to pay the government £1.5bn before it gives shareholders a dividend, the lender announced yesterday. It has struck a deal to buy back the dividend access share, which was put in place as part of its bailout. RBS will pay £320m immediately, and the remainder when it is able. Once it has [...]
RBS snaps up Ewen Stevenson as new CFO April 4, 2014 The Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Ewen Stevenson as the company's new chief finance officer (CFO). Stevenson joins the state-backed bank from Credit Suisse where he is co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and its Global Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking division. Ross McEwan, RBS chief executive, commented on the appointment: I am pleased to [...]
Stress test fail puts RBS sale of Citizens at risk March 28, 2014 HOPES of an early sale for RBS’s US arm Citizens were knocked yesterday after it failed the Fed’s stress tests. Although the main plan is to float the bank, starting later this year, RBS has been in early-stage talks with other banks including Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui over a trade sale. But failing the stress test [...]
Failed stress test hits RBS’ chances of fast Citizens sale March 27, 2014 RBS’ shares fell this morning after its US arm Citizens failed a Fed stress test, knocking the bank’s chances of a quick sale to another lender. Although the main plan is to float the bank, it has been in early-stage talks with other banks including Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui over a trade sale. But failing the [...]
Japanese bank Sumitomo eyes RBS’s Citizens brand in the US March 24, 2014 RBS’s AMERICAN bank Citizens could be sold to Japanese lender Sumitomo Mitsui after the pair held talks about the unit. The bailed-out bank’s main plan is to float Citizens on the stock market in an initial public offering (IPO), starting this year and completing in 2016. Such a sale would follow the path taken by [...]