ANYONE KNOW WHY THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND IS SHOWING A SHARE PRICE AROUND THE 6.59 MARK WHEN IT WAS 18.00 OR SO THE OTHER WEEK OR AM I GOING STRANGE?????????????

See Panmure Gordon update below.

Responding to the reports, Panmure Gordon said it thinks this would be bad news for RBS, given uncertainties about further write-downs, impairment charges
and higher capital requirements.

The broker said it thinks the bank is vulnerable -- along with many of its peers -- to falling house prices and rising arrears, which it believes will lead to both further write-downs and higher impairment charges.

It added that these macro trends appear to have migrated from the United States to the United Kingdom.

Panmure Gordon maintained its 'sell' recommendation on RBS, with a target price of 280 pence.

I agree where is the upside coming from for all banks over the 1-2 years apart from opportunistic takeovers or mergers?

Latest rumour in the city is that Barclays may try and beat RBS to a rights issue, true or not I dont know. But would expect other banks to follow along this route.

As I said a few day ago, I note when companies are in trouble they go for rights issues to the shareholders, in better times we don't get a look in. They just go for a placing with large institutional holders.

Yes have a rights issue good excuse to reduce the dividend.

Yes have a rights issue good excuse to reduce the dividend.

I guess it will be a 2/5 issue at 280p raising 10b .

I read earlier a figure of 275 to raise 10bn, so would expect sp to drift lower to low 3.00s

Anybodys gess we should run a book.....1 for 3 @ 3.30 !

not necessarily so at all ..... others may perceive it as a way of picking up cheap stock, especially if market sentiment is positive

Picking up cheap stock. That is exactly how I would see it, so the low 3.00 figure could be what I would like to see. But would still expect to see this unless whole market remains bullish.

Pretty expensive way to raise capital with RBS shares yielding 9% unless you reduce the dividend subsquently.

and this may be the time Sovereign Wealth Funds take stakes an look to take a longer view ?

May prove difficult to get a rights issue away in volatile markets, in normal conditions it would not need to be underwitten... perhaps an opportunity to earn some fat fees?

I'm impressed Halifax theres more to you than meets the eye, surely you wouldn't underwrite the whole lot, must spread some of the risk............lol

No I'll leave it to Goldman and Merrill they need the money more than I do in these hard times!!

The 6 billion write-off that RBS will announce from its continuing exposure to the sub-prime meltdown in America is bigger than expected, as is the rights issue

Some press reports suggest a write-down of 10b and a rights issue of 15b and the sale of Direct Line and Churchill for 4b and the cancellation or reduction of the dividend..

When did it all go wrong..?

But can we believe anything that is said, as RBS stated after the last write down that there would be no more hidden exposure to the sub prime market surfacing. At the time many of us stated that we were skeptical that the whole truth was out.
I personally don't think they have anything further hidden, as to come to the market again after this proposed issue would destroy any belief/confidence left.

I remember in February that most people here were indeed skeptical to the true extent of writedown then, and expected more to come. RBS must use this week to clear the decks with writedowns, and have large enough rights issue, to ensure they don't have to come back to the shareholders. I wonder if as recently as February, RBS like most banks may not have had a clear picture of the amounts of risk they were holding, ABN Ambro had higher exposure to sub prime debts, than most European Banks.

Watch now as other banks scramble to follow RBS, re writedowns and rights issues.

Someone on another site posted that the heads of managements at banks/building societies should have been more aware and should take cuts in salaries/bonuses.
The post was rubbished soon after. It was rubbished with the reasons given that most banks hardly realized there was sub prime in the deals they were buying, due to the way they were packaged and sold off to unsuspecting banks.
Whatever happened to Due Diligence. If you were intending to buy a company and went to these banks for a loan they would question what steps you had taken to investigate the companies profits/loss, debt, cash flow, potential etc, almost the third degree as I know to my own experience.
Whilst appreciating that the buying of a business to purchasing packaged loans is not an exact parallel, the banks that took on these financial loan packages (on reading many sub prime articles) carried out about as many checks as most punters carry out buying knocked off CD's at a car boot sale.
Some institutions that bought these packages now admit their checks were somewhat lax, whilst many experts (yes I know hindsight is a great thing) have stated that many bought with almost no checks, IE bought almost as seen.
The truth is probably somewhere in between.
They took on these packaged loans, because they were obviously priced at such an on the surface bargain that greed and not prudence was the order of the day. Many then re-sold on, probably still not full aware of their true value.
So yes I fully agree with the statement that the salaries and bonuses should be cut, but don't limit this to RBS. All such Dell Boy dealings should have been seen for what they were. We are talking about top so called financial experts here, who like those markets of old, 'OK son you have just bought a bargain, now don't open the box till you get home'.