Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.
Royal Bank of Scotland has reported more losses as investment banking profits fail to offset bad debts and the state-owned lender warned of more 'poor' results to come.
"A marathon not a sprint," is how the Royal Bank of Scotland's Chief Executive Stephen Hester describes the bank's long road to recovery.
RBS has posted a billion pound loss for the first six months of 2009. That figure came despite profits in the company's investment banking arm.
The bank's bad debts across the group have hit £7.5 billion.
"Can I say that there are many things that we are doing to get back to health and repay the support we've had for which we're very grateful and part of that is to get rid of the risks which makes it hard for us to support out customers without government help, part of it is to rebuild our business so that customers can get their money out, get the 20 billion out at a profit," says Mr Hester.
RBS was taken to the brink of collapse at the height of the financial crisis.It was only saved after a government cash injection, and is now 70 percent owned by the British taxpayer.
The result is a gloomy end to a week of reporting losses for Britain's banks. HSBC and Barclays posted combined profits of six billion pounds but also reported high debt losses.
RBS has also been hit by an exodus of staff, having shed 16,000 jobs since last October. RBS shares slumped at the half-year result, falling by 15 percent in early trade.
Reuters
