RBS faces £8bn mortgage fines

TAXPAYER-BACKED Royal Bank of Scotland could face another £8bn of fines as it continues to battle the fallout from the financial crisis.

The bank earlier this week agreed to pay an £846m fine over toxic bundles of US mortgage debt.

This will come from a £4.3bn pot which is also intended to cover a separate, multi-billion pound settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

But analysts believe there are potentially another £4.8bn of costs to come on top of that when the Department for Justice weighs in on mortgages.

It could take the total outstanding to £8bn. No money has yet been set aside to pay the DoJ bill because there is no way to guess how much it will be.

Ian Gordon, an analyst at Investec Bank, said fines and litigation would cost RBS another £4.8bn on top of what it has already set aside.