RBS losses widen to £1.8bn
State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland posted a fourth quarter loss of nearly £2bn, hurt by writedowns on assets and restructuring costs.
RBS, 82 per cent owned by the government after a state bailout during the 2008 credit crisis, reported a fourth-quarter loss of £1.8bn, pushing it back into the red after it made a third-quarter profit of £1.2bn.
RBS said staff costs at its GBM investment banking division, where it is cutting thousands of jobs, were £2.45bn in 2011, down 9 percent from the previous year.
It paid out £390m in bonuses for its GBM investment bankers for 2011, down 58 per cent from 2010.
Across the bank, RBS paid out 985 million in bonuses, down 21 percent from 2010.
The pay of RBS’ top staff has become a sore point for many Britons, who remain angered by the fact that bankers have continued to pay themselves large salaries while elsewhere thousands lose their jobs as the global economy weakens.
RBS Chairman Philip Hampton and Chief Executive Stephen Hester waived their bonuses earlier this month after politicians from all of the major parties called on them to refuse the awards.