RBS, one of the "people's banks", has reported a Q3 loss of £1.4BN compared with a pre-tax profit of £1.2BN in Q2.
The swing back to loss is blamed on further bad debt write offs of £1.7BN.
Stephen Hester, CEO, has stated that he expects to more or less break even for the full year. However, in a warning to customers and the government, he noted that the current margins were not high enough to cover the increased capital requirements placed on it and other banks.
In a nut shell, either the capital requirements will have to be reduced or banks will increase again the interest rates they charge borrowers.
In the meantime, despite running on "low margins", RBS has managed to find the spare cash to increase staff pay and bonuses for investment bankers in the third quarter.
So that's alright then!
No comments:
Post a Comment