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RBS downbeat despite £15m profit | RBS downbeat despite £15m profit |
(20 minutes later) | |
Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which is 70%-owned by taxpayers, has reported a pre-tax profit of £15m for the first six months of the year. | Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which is 70%-owned by taxpayers, has reported a pre-tax profit of £15m for the first six months of the year. |
The statement from RBS was downbeat, highlighting the £1bn net loss and saying "the results, as we had clearly warned, are poor". | The statement from RBS was downbeat, highlighting the £1bn net loss and saying "the results, as we had clearly warned, are poor". |
The investment banking division fared well, making about a £5bn profit, while high street banking had a harder time. | |
RBS also said it had written off £7.5bn of bad debts. | RBS also said it had written off £7.5bn of bad debts. |
Unlike Lloyds Banking Group earlier in the week, RBS did not say that would be the peak of the write-offs, with RBS chief executive Stephen Hester telling the BBC it was "difficult to know for certain". | Unlike Lloyds Banking Group earlier in the week, RBS did not say that would be the peak of the write-offs, with RBS chief executive Stephen Hester telling the BBC it was "difficult to know for certain". |
"We are now confident we can rebuild RBS," he added, undertaking to pay taxpayers back for their investments within five years. | "We are now confident we can rebuild RBS," he added, undertaking to pay taxpayers back for their investments within five years. |
He also warned that "overall results may not substantially improve until 2011 and full recovery will take time". | He also warned that "overall results may not substantially improve until 2011 and full recovery will take time". |
They were boosted by a £3.8bn profit from buying back the bank's own debt when the banking crisis made it cheap. | |
Mr Hester said that he had reduced the size of RBS by 26% or £574bn so far this year, which has meant selling some businesses and cutting thousands of jobs. |