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<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPublished by<\/span> 2m read<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t28 April 7.35am<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Royal Bank of Scotland<\/strong>\u00a0swung back into the black in the first quarter but it is not as positive as it looks.<\/p>\n It is still being hit by a spate of litigation and restructuring costs and it was relieved of not having to pay a\u00a0\u00a31.2 billion payment to the Treasury, which it did a year ago in order to remove a block on dividend payments.<\/p>\n Operating profit before tax hit \u00a3713 million\u00a0in the first quarter this year\u00a0while net profit beat analyst expectations of \u00a350 million, hitting\u00a0\u00a3259 million.<\/p>\n RBS,\u00a0which is 73% state-owned, said in its Q1 results statement\u00a0that\u00a0it was still\u00a0encountering a number of costs.<\/p>\n These include:<\/p>\n
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\n<\/ul>\n Although the Q1 results do not look too bad in isolation, you have to look at the long-term trend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prices delayed by at least 15 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The results come after\u00a0RBS reported its ninth consecutive year of losses, in February, and said it would not make a profit until 2018.<\/p>\n The bank said in its full year financial results statement\u00a0that it lost\u00a0\u00a36.955 billion compared with \u00a31,979 million in 2015. The reason it lost so much money is down to litigation and conduct costs\u00a0– money set aside for legal issues and compensation – of \u00a35.868 billion, as well as other key elements, such as restructuring costs totalling restructuring costs.<\/p>\n It is also struggling to see what it can do about\u00a0its\u00a0spin-off Williams & Glyn\u00a0unit, which it was initially meant to sell as a\u00a0condition of its massive government bailout in 2008.<\/p>\n RBS has struggled to sell it’s W&G unit for\u00a0years. Initially, when RBS was bailed out by the UK taxpayer for \u00a345 billion from 2008, one of the conditions was that\u00a0RBS must sell W&G as a condition of returning excess capital and dividends to investors.<\/p>\n The bank is still almost three-quarters owned by the British government, despite the government gradually selling off small portions of the bank in the past two years.<\/p>\n Last year, RBS\u00a0warned that it would fail to meet the initial December 2017 sale deadline.<\/p>\n This article was written by Lianna Brinded from Business Insider and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n Hargreaves Lansdown is not responsible for this article’s content or accuracy and may not share the author’s views. News and research are not personal recommendations to deal. All investments can fall in value so you could get back less than you invest. Article originally published by Business Insider.
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RBS still has a lot of issues to tackle<\/h2>\n
Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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