Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bank thrown into loss by £900m bill
ROYAL Bank of Scotland has tumbled into the red after suffering a £900million hit for payment protection insurance claims.
The taxpayer bailed-out bank was driven to an £8million pre-tax operating loss for the three months to September 30, compared to a £961million profit last year.
RBS blamed its PPI bill following a last-minute surge in claims ahead of the August 29 deadline.
The results sent RBS shares tumbling 3% during early trading yesterday.
Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “PPI has checked out with a bang, driving RBS back into the red in the third quarter – the industry will be relieved to see the back of the whole sorry saga.” Excluding PPI payouts and other exceptional costs, RBS would have reported an operating profit of £1billion – still well behind market expectations. Despite the third-quarter losses, RBS said it remained on track to meet full-year expectations in “uncertain times” as operating profits stood at £2.7billion for the first nine months of 2019. These figures mark the last for boss Ross Mcewan before he hands over to the lending giant’s first female chief executive next Thursday. Alison Rose will make history as the first woman to run one of Britain’s biggest high-street banks.
Chief financial officer Katie Murray said: “These results demonstrate our solid underlying performance in a tough operating environment. We have seen strong growth across the business and our sustained high levels of capital and liquidity mean we are well positioned to support customers in uncertain times.”
Half a million households face rises in energy bills in the next few months, new analysis by comparethemarket. com reveals.
More than 200 fixed-rate energy tariffs will end between now and December – and people who don’t switch to new deals could be hit with an increase of an average £114 a year.
Householders facing the biggest hikes – at an average £148 – are those whose tariff ends this month.