Red faces at RBS as its results are in the red again

Published: 26/05/2015

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) made a quarterly loss of £446m and has set aside another £856m to cover both legal costs and fines. This quarterly loss continues the trend from 2014 when the bank incurred a £5.8bn loss. The bank’s provisions for mis-conduct included a further £100m for mis sold payment protection insurance and an extra £334m for manipulation of the foreign exchange benchmark.

The Chief Executive of RBS acknowledged that 2015 was going to be ‘another tough year’ and that ‘there are still many conduct costs on the horizon’. On a more positive note the bank’s adjusted underlying profits climbed 16% on the year to £1.6bn.

Solicitor Paul Cahill commented:

“The consequences of the bank’s misconduct continue to dog their heels. Not only do they still have to make provisions for mis sold PPI but they’ve also had to set aside funds to cover other mis selling scandals. It’s not just RBS that are in this position – other big banks have also been brought to book over various conduct failings.

“What lies at the heart of this is that RBS hasn’t put customers’ interests at the top of its agenda. The PPI mis selling scandal shows that the consequences of this have been felt on the RBS bottom line as, rightly, people look to reclaim mis sold PPI.”

Content correct at time of publication