| RBS Posts Q3 loss of $3 billion |
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06/11/2009 13:08 (14 Day 14:57 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank, reported a net loss of 1.8 billion pounds ($3 billion). The bank said it remains cautious on the outlook.
The Edinburgh-based bank's net loss in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with a net profit of £871 million in the year-earlier period, The Wall Street Journal reported. RBS's operating loss was £1.5 billion, narrower than £3.5 billion it posted in the second quarter. Adjusting for movements in the fair value of the bank's own debt, it posted a pre-impairment operating profit of £2.2 billion, compared with £2.1 billion in the previous quarter.
"Profitability in our core businesses will recover fully only when our own actions are also complemented by more normal interest rates and bad debt experience," Chief Executive Stephen Hester said, according to the same source.
For the three months ending Sept. 30, RBS reported total income of 7.1 billion pounds, compared to 8.6 billion pounds a year earlier, AP wrote. However, the bank booked impairment losses of 3.3 billion pounds, up from 1.3 billion a year earlier. Impairments for the first three quarters of this year rose to 10.8 billion pounds.
According to the same source, without the impairments, operating profit rose 55 percent to 1.75 billion pounds. The bank gained 1.4 percent to 35.7 pence at 8:21 a.m. in London trading, while the FTSE 350 Banks Index was unchanged, Bloomberg informs. RBS is getting a total of 45.5 billion pounds in capital from the British taxpayer, making it the world’s most expensive bank bailout. This week, the 70 percent government-owned lender said it would sell its insurance assets, more than 300 U.K. branches, an investment banking division and a credit card payment unit to win EU approval for taxpayer aid.
“This will be a marathon and not a sprint,” Hester said in a conference call with journalists today. He hoped the bank would be profitable in 2011, according to the same source.
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