RBS chief says public unlikely to get bailout cash back
RBS boss Ross McEwan has admitted taxpayers are ‘unlikely’ to get all of their bailout cash back, before boasting of the bank’s huge cash reserves.
The bank, still 62 per cent owned by taxpayers, is set to hold an extraordinary general meeting to garner support for a government share buyback next year.
But Mr McEwan yesterday warned the UK Government will continue to sell its £45billion stake in RBS at a loss.
He told BBC Scotland: ‘This bank had to be saved by the public of the UK. I get their frustration with that and their frustration with, “Why haven’t we got our £45billion back?”.’
Mr McEwan said the bank was saved ‘to save the UK economy because we were such a big part of it’, adding: ‘The consequence of that is putting £45billion of taxpayer money into a bank and you’re unlikely to get it all back out again. My job has been to create a good bank.’
The New Zealand-born chief executive also talked up the bank’s cash reserves. He said: ‘If
‘We have great liquidity’
you look at the bank now, we have very high capital levels – much more capital than we need to run this bank.
‘So over the next few years we will look to get it back in the hands of our shareholders.
‘We have great liquidity. When this bank went down we were short-term funded when we needed long-term funding.
‘Today, we have too much liquidity in this bank. But we are holding on to it to make payments and see what happens with Brexit.’
Whitehall incurred a loss of £2.1billion when it sold a tranche of RBS shares in June.
The 7.7per cent stake was sold at 271p each – almost half the 502p price paid in October 2008.
Last year, Chancellor Philip Hammond warned the taxpayer must accept that they would lose out on the bailout.
In February, RBS reported an annual profit of £752million – its first for a decade and a turnaround from the £6.95billion loss the previous year. But it was fined £3.6billion in May by the US Department of Justice, over the sale of financial products linked to risky mortgages.