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?"

Author:: Bess Levin
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Feb 26, 2015

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]

The bad news is that 600 of the Queen's corgis are being let go. The good news, while it probably comes as little solace to those who will no longer receive birthday chickens, is that 300 or so new ones will be hired in their place. State-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland is making more than 600 staff redundant as a result of legislation due to come into force at the end of the year, bringing total staff reductions at the bank since its 2008 bailout to around 36,000. RBS, 82 percent owned by the government, said the jobs would go as a result of new UK rules requiring retail financial products such as savings and investment vehicles to be sold by more highly qualified staff and charged a fee. "As a response to this we will be reducing the number of roles by 618 across the UK and creating 351 new roles," an RBS spokesman said on Tuesday. "Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support. We continue to make efficiencies across our business to deliver greater value toour customers and shareholders," the spokesman added. RBS Job Loss Hits 36,000 [Reuters]

Like Bank of America, RBS has some big goals for the coming year, chief among them being the firing of several thousand investment bankers. (For those skeptical they can do it, according to a PowerPoint presentation presented yesterday, re: the "exits," quite a bit of progress has already been made.) Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, said it will cut 300 more jobs at its investment banking unit and is “on track” with its plan to exit businesses. RBS will eliminate 3,800 jobs at the division by the fourth quarter of next year, compared with an earlier target of 3,500, according to slides based on a presentation delivered by John Hourican, chief of markets and international banking, to analysts Monday. About 3,000 of the cuts will have completed this year, RBS said...The bank’s control of costs is “ongoing,” said Chris Kyle, chief financial officer of markets and international banking, at the presentation. “We will almost certainly hit this year’s number” in terms of the guidance, he said. Royal Bank Of Scotland Cuts 300 More Jobs At Investment Bank [Bloomberg] RBS Markets Investor Roundtable [RBS]