ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP PLC is within a rising trend. Continued positive development within the trend channel is indicated. The stock has broken up through the resistance at pence 50.00. A further rise to 100p (1) is predicted in the medium term. The stock is assessed as technically positive for the medium long term.

Good luck -

There is always a limit to everything, even stock manipulation thorough computer glitches cannot destroy the world.

The branches worth much more than the price offered. RBS holders should be happy, IMO.

Have a look under the paragraph "What now?"

Treasury's dilemma over RBS break-up

As expected. Higher than close before the news.

RBS are considering suing BNC.

RBS exits UK Government's Asset Protection Scheme

RBS is pleased to announce that it has agreed with HM Treasury to exit the UK Government's Asset Protection Scheme effective 18 October 2012.

The exit comes at the earliest date consistent with the minimum contractual APS fee. RBS will have paid £2.5 billion for its participation in the APS, without having made a claim, in addition to around £1.5 billion it paid to HM Treasury for liquidity support received during the financial crisis.

BREAKING NEWS: Bank of Scotland fined £4.2 million for failures in mortgage record keeping

Ian Gordon of Investec:
"We are genuine admirers of the Hester/Van Saun turnaround project, but we were left somewhat perplexed by last week’s excitement over RBS’ exit from the APS. We’re pleased that it happened, but in both practical and financial terms, nothing changed relative to expectations. We still forecast another jaw-dropping statutory loss - £1.0bn for Q3 2012e on 2 Nov - and a bleak outlook for returns thereafter, (RoE 2013e 2%, 2014e 4%). As such, with the stock on 0.6x tNAV and close to a new 17-month high, we downgrade to Sell.
We agree that it was necessary and appropriate for RBS to “exit APS” before year-end in order to avoid paying incremental fees over and above the £2.5bn already charged for the notional protection. But let’s be clear; the scheme was a charade from the first moment it was put in place (December 2009). At that time, although the outlook remained grim, there was no realistic prospect of this “catastrophe-only” insurance scheme “paying out”. To give credit to RBS, it has always been transparent about the temporary APS boost to its printed core tier 1 ratio, and the market has always “looked through” to the adjusted (ex-APS) measure – 10.3% at 30 June 2012. The one positive we do take from last week’s confirmed exit is removal of the risk that the authorities could “play games” and block RBS’ exit to extract a further fee. A “fee-free” exit was assumed in our numbers, and by the wider market.
For Q3 2012e we expect an Operating Profit of £0.7bn, (Q2 2012: £650m). But this becomes an estimated pre-tax loss of £1.0bn once we include deductions for FVOOD (£0.7bn), PPI (£0.3bn), interest rate swap misselling (£0.2bn) and integration/restructuring/amortisation (£0.5bn). In our forecasts, LIBOR, FHFA and Iran settlements all fall in later periods (along with further restructuring charges and another interest rate swap top-up). Give credit for the progress made, but there’s a very long way to go. RoE-g/CoE-g 255p TP maintained."

On Friday, Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to say it just about broke even in the third quarter. The results will be the lender’s first since its exit this month from the asset protection scheme, which was seen as a milestone in its turnaround.

Interim Management Statement - Part 1 of 7

Highlights

Continued progress in the RBS recovery plan

· Continued momentum in strengthening the Group's balance sheet:

○ Funded assets declined again to £909 billion, a reduction of £68 billion from the start of 2012.

○ Core Tier 1 ratio remained strong at 11.1% whilst absorbing uplifts from regulatory changes; 10.4% excluding the capital relief provided by the Asset Protection Scheme (APS).

○ The Group's loan:deposit ratio improved further to 102%.

○ Usage of short-term wholesale funding has more than halved since the start of 2012 to £49 billion.

· RBS's credit profile has strengthened markedly in the traded debt markets reflecting the success of RBS restructuring efforts. CDS spreads have halved since their 2011 peak, and secondary bond spreads on five year maturity have narrowed from c.450 basis points to c.100 basis points on a year-to-date basis. This strengthening has resulted in an accounting charge for improved own credit of £4,429 million year-to-date, including £1,455 million in Q3.

Delivering against major milestones

· Direct Line Group was successfully floated in October 2012, raising £911 million from the sale of a 34.7% stake in the company.

· The exit from the UK Government's APS on 18 October 2012 provides a further demonstration of the Group's progress in rebuilding a strong and stable balance sheet. The exit also marks a major UK fiscal benefit, with the Government's original £200 billion contingent exposure now extinguished.

· While Santander's decision to pull out of its agreed purchase of certain of the Group's UK branch-based businesses was disappointing, much of the work to separate this profitable and well-funded business has already been completed, and RBS has recommenced its efforts to divest the business, which utilises some 2% of the Group's capital resources.


Highlights (continued)

Operating performance stable in Q3 2012

· Q3 2012 Group operating profit improved to £1,047 million from £650 million in Q2 and £2 million in Q3 2011, with Core operating profit up 8% from Q2 and 67% from Q3 2011. There was a further reduction in operating losses from Non-Core.

· Core operating profit was £1,633 million, with a solid performance in Markets offset by lower income and a small number of single name impairments in UK Corporate.

· Core return on tangible equity (ROTE) for the first nine months of 2012 was 10%. Markets' return on equity (ROE) over this period was 12.0%.

· Group net interest margin was stable at 1.94%, with Core Retail & Commercial NIM also steady at 2.92%.

· Group expenses were reduced by 6% versus prior quarter to £3,639 million, with Core R&C down 3% to £2,389 million and Markets down 5% to £753 million. The Core cost:income ratio improved to 59%, with UK Retail now at 51%.

· Staff costs were 5% lower than in Q2 at £1,943 million, with headcount down by 9,900, 7%, from a year earlier.

· Group impairment losses totalled £1,176 million in Q3 2012, down £159 million from the prior quarter. Non-Core impairments, mostly in real estate finance, were £183 million lower. Total Ulster Bank (Core and Non-Core) impairments were £493 million, compared with £514 million in Q2 2012.

Continuing commitment to customers in difficult times

· Maintaining support for the Group's core UK retail and commercial customers is a key priority. RBS has supported over 350,000 SMEs with £28.6 billion of lending, including overdrafts, so far this year. RBS has also helped more than 43,000 customers buy their home, including 14,000 first time buyers, with £11 billion of gross new mortgage lending in the first nine months of 2012.

· RBS continues to work hard to remedy a number of past issues. Q3 2012 results include an additional £400 million provision in relation to Payment Protection Insurance, bringing the cumulative charge to £1.7 billion.

· The Group is determined to continue to strengthen its management disciplines and culture in order to ensure that serving customers well becomes more deeply embedded as the Bank's core purpose. Key points of focus are:

○ Better performance against Customer Charter targets.

○ Widening the scope of training programmes for front-line staff.

○ Overhauling service offerings to align them more closely to customers' needs.

○ Realigning incentive structures to ensure they take proper account of customer interest.





Note:
(1)
Operating profit before tax, own credit adjustments, Asset Protection Scheme, Payment Protection Insurance costs, amortisation of purchased intangible assets, integration and restructuring costs, loss on redemption of own debt, strategic disposals and RFS Holdings minority interest ('operating profit'). Statutory operating loss before tax was £2,763 million for the nine months ended 30 September 2012.

once these parson's egg numbers have been crunched by those who understand these things, i think the results will be deemed to be pretty satisfactory

Barclays Capital Overweight 285.10 285.10 270.00 330.00 Retains

with greece being rescued (again), i'ld expect banks to recoup most if not all of yesterday's losses

Nationwide interested in buying RBS branches

LONDON | Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:58am GMT
(Reuters) - Nationwide, Britain's biggest customer-owned financial services group, is interested in bidding for 316 branches being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland to speed up its expansion into lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

A 1.65-billion-pound deal to sell the branches collapsed last month after Spanish bidder Santander said the process of carving out the business had proved more difficult than expected.

12 month high earlier @300.70p

Disposal of Indian Banking Operations

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group ("RBS") today announces that the agreement to sell its Indian Retail & Commercial banking operations to The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited ("HSBC"), as announced on 2 July 2010, has lapsed with effect from 30 November 2012 and the sale will not be proceeding.

Investec has reiterated its 'sell' rating and 265p target price for banking group RBS on the back of the company's exposure to a tough market in Ireland.

Figures from the Central Bank of Ireland showed yesterday that "things are, as we feared, still getting worse", with the number of mortgages in over 90 days of arrears continuing to rise.

on the back of the above, have banked a useful profit at 303

Another hitting 12 month high today @303.3

We (UBS) are raising our price targets for the UK domestic banks to reflect the better growth and profitability picture beginning to emerge, combined with lower dilution risks as the regulatory agenda fades. A focus on earnings drives our Lloyds price target to 60p (from 50p) and we upgrade the rating to Buy. Barclays’ price target rises to 315p (from 255p), and RBS to 410p. RBS remains a key Buy rating.

Just heard on the BBC that RBS are to receive a bigger fine than Barclays for their part in the LIBOR rigging scandal, but haven't yet found any press report with an accurate figure.