RBS posts US$8.7b loss in ninth straight year without a profit

Security matters: Banks are increasingly sensitive to the brand damage caused by IT failings, perceiving customers to care just as deeply about security and stable service as loan or deposit rates. — Reuters

LONDON: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported on Friday a sharp rise in losses as higher misconduct charges and restructuring costs underscored the challenges facing the lender nine years after it required the world's biggest bank bailout.

RBS, which has not made an annual profit since 2007, booked 6.96 billion pounds (US$8.74 billion) of losses for 2016, against a 1.98 billion pound loss in the same period a year earlier.

Once, briefly, the world's largest bank by assets, RBS is in the midst of a vast, multi-year restructuring of the bank, which includes asset sales, job cuts and wading through a series of legal scandals.

"This is a bank that has been on a remarkable journey. We still have further to go. But the next three years will not be the same as the past three," chief executive Ross McEwan said in the statement.

RBS announced plans to cut 750 million pounds of costs from the business next year to help offset the challenge of a low interest rate economy that makes it harder for the bank to make money. - Bernama