RBS Is Gonna Try Something New

For the last seven years, the bank has reported an annual loss. Unhappy with this outcome, the upper echelons of management apparently put their heads together and said, "What if every time we had an impulse to do one thing, we did the opposite?"
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So far Project Maybe If We Follow None of Our Instincts We Could Make Some Money For Once has been relegated to size but if it works out the executive dining room will soon be substituting porridge for Denny's Grand Slams.

The Royal Bank of Scotland on Thursday reported its seventh annual loss, and announced that it would once again drastically shrink its global investment bank. R.B.S., based in Edinburgh, will reduce its geographic footprint to about 13 countries from 38, incurring significant job losses, including in the United States. Risk-weighted assets will be reduced by two-thirds, from 107 billion pounds, about $166 billion, to £35 billion to £40 billion in 2019. “This is a plan for a smaller, more focused, but ultimately more valuable, bank with the vast majority of its assets in the U.K., and for R.B.S. marks the end of the stand-alone global investment bank model,” the bank’s chief executive, Ross McEwan, said.

With 7th Annual Loss, R.B.S. Announces Drastic Restructuring [Dealbook]

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