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 -

Liberum Capital Buy 305.60 293.60 - 340.00 Upgrades

my buy at 295p won't be to bad then.,.

Goldman Sachs Neutral 299.65 293.30 340.00 360.00 Upgrades

Final Results - RBS Holdings N.V.

Deutsche Bank Hold 292.30 295.00 295.00 Retains

Morgan Stanley Equal weight 292.30 - 340.00 Retains

Results this thursday.
SocGen with the preview:
"We expect core underlying profit of £1.8bn offset by £0.6bn non-core losses for a group underlying profit of £1.2bn (no consensus available). We retain our Hold recommendation; while RBS trades more cheaply than other UK banks, we believe that its core business is less well placed than others, and its low quality assets are not as well marked as at Lloyds and Barclays.
We believe that capital will be scrutinised on results day. The PRA recently suggested that beyond capital actions already planned for this year, UK banks have an aggregate capital deficit of around £12bn. The FT reported that £6bn of this relates to RBS, and we eagerly await management’s official response. Non-Core is a key part of the capital equation, and we expect asset shrinkage of £5.8bn to cut the remaining balance to £52bn. For RBS Core, we will be watching for some signs of improvement in Ulster; although only a small division, its effect last year was to cut Core’s RoE from 12% to 10%."

Friday should be interesting!

Interim Management Statement pt 1

Highlights

Successful rebuild of financial strength

· RBS's Core Tier 1 ratio strengthened by 50 basis points to 10.8%, largely driven by the continuing reduction in Non-Core and Markets risk-weighted assets.

· On a fully loaded Basel III basis, the Group's Core Tier 1 ratio improved by 50 basis points to 8.2%.

· Non-Core funded assets were reduced by £6 billion at constant exchange rates to £53 billion and the division is on track to hit its target of £40 billion by the end of 2013.

· Continuing deposit inflows improved the loan:deposit ratio to 99%, and our liquidity pool of £158 billion covered short-term wholesale funding of £43 billion by 3.7 times.

· Risk elements in lending fell by 2% at constant exchange rates and provision coverage was further strengthened in Non-Core and Ulster Bank. The Group charge for loan impairments fell 20% versus prior year.

· Credit trends in Ireland are turning a corner, with Ulster Bank Core and Non-Core impairment losses down 27% from Q1 2012 and 29% from Q4 2012.

· Tangible net asset value per share increased 3% to 459p from 446p at 31 December 2012.

Operating performance is resilient

· Group pre-tax profit was £826 million, £577 million excluding own credit adjustments, compared with a loss of £2,227 million in Q4 2012. Group operating profit(1) was £829 million, up 50% from Q4 2012, driven by a reduction in Non-Core losses.

· Profit attributable to shareholders was £393 million, or £194 million excluding the impact of own credit adjustments.

· Core operating profit of £1,334 million compares with £1,495 million in Q4 2012 and £1,639 million in Q1 2012. Retail & Commercial profits were up 12% from Q1 2012 to £1,010 million, with Ulster Bank posting a material improvement. Markets showed a seasonal increase versus Q4 2012 to £278 million, though down significantly relative to the prior year's strong first quarter.

· Non-Core operating losses of £505 million were 46% lower than in Q4 2012, driven by a further reduction in impairments.

Highlights (continued)

Good progress in business restructuring

· The sale of a further tranche of Direct Line Group shares in March took the Group's stake below 50%, in line with the European Commission (EC) state aid agreement.

· The Group continues to work towards a full separation and initial public offering of its branch-based business that is mandated for disposal by the EC. The business is profitable and well-funded, and we continue to have discussions with potential investors in the business. We anticipate re-branding this business under the Williams & Glyn's name.

· As indicated in the Group's 2012 annual results announcement, the Markets business is being restructured with a 2014 target of reducing risk-weighted assets to £80 billion, on a Basel III basis. Our intention is to sustain the business's core strengths in fixed income products while focusing on serving our corporate and investor clients well.

Continuing commitment to customers

· RBS is committed to serving its customers well. Right across our business this is our top priority, to sustain and to improve what we do.

· Core lending to SMEs(2) rose 1% from Q4 2012 to £34 billion, while the wider market remained flat. UK residential mortgage lending remained broadly stable at £110.2 billion. UK Retail mortgage balances stand 33% above 2008 levels, although Q1 2013 volumes were affected by extensive staff retraining.

· During Q1 2013 RBS has been pleased to offer over £1.5 billion of discounted loans to SMEs and more than £327 million of mortgages to homebuyers in association with the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). Given its very strong liquidity position, RBS has had no need to draw on this public funding during the quarter.

· During the quarter RBS offered more than £13 billion of loans and facilities to UK businesses, including £8 billion to SMEs, and renewed nearly £7 billion of overdrafts, of which £2 billion was for SMEs.

· The average interest rate charged on RBS's SME loans was 3.88% in Q1 2013, down from 3.93% in the prior quarter and from 4.14% in Q1 2012.

· The Group has maintained broadly stable market shares across its major customer franchises. Net Promoter Scores improved slightly in Q1 2013 in a number of key areas.

· Efforts to simplify processes and improve customer experience continue; changes to the current account opening process are being piloted that have so far significantly reduced account opening times.

Highlights (continued)

Outlook

RBS expects continued good progress on all 'safety and soundness' measures including a fully loaded Basel III Core Tier 1 ratio of around 9% by the end of 2013.

The Bank has strong ability to fund lending growth as customer demand grows.

Operating results in Retail and Commercial banking are expected to be resilient with modest improvement in net interest margin, cost reduction and improving impairment trends. Income is likely to mirror customer activity levels.

Markets-related income remains difficult to predict but we expect a muted year overall as the business transitions towards its revised steady-state shape and size.

We expect to deliver Group operating costs (excluding Direct Line Group) below market consensus expectations of c.£13.2 billion this year, with further meaningful cost reductions in 2014 and 2015.

.

RBS 'ready to privatise in a year'

Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, says the bank will be ready to return to the private sector next year.

In a video statement posted on the bank's website, Sir Philip said he expected the government to start selling shares from the middle of 2014.

His comments came as RBS reported a return to profit for the first three months of the year.

It made a pre-tax profit of £826m after racking up losses last year.

RBS lost £1.5bn in the first quarter of 2012, and lost £2.2bn in final three months of the year.

It said losses relating to bad loans were down 26% to £1bn, and it had now seen a 79% reduction in non-core assets since it began restructuring in the wake of the financial crisis.

Hmmmm....they don't seem to like the figures much! Presumably below expectations? I thought RBS would be up & EMG down this morning on their results, but seems I have got it the wrong way round!

I wonder why we bother sometimes.... :-)

Oriel Securities Sell 292.10 245.00 245.00 Retains

Ready to privatise? Oh yes of course.. then we can do it all over again -):

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 296.95 320.00 320.00 Reiterates

Numis Hold 294.60 308.00 308.00 Retains

Morgan Stanley Equal weight 293.80 340.00 314.00 Retains

Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were under heavy selling pressure on Friday as the bank's first-quarter results are likely to prompt earnings downgrades to consensus estimates, according to Nomura which kept its 'reduce' rating and 300p target price for the stock.

Nomura said: "On first look, we sense downgrades in consensus estimates as the group is annualising pre-provision profits of £7.5bn against full-year consensus of £8.2bn, with impairments only modestly better than consensus. We retain our cautious view on the stock."

it seems RBS are wringing their hands that they have £20bn set aside for lending to s/m-s businesses, but can find no takers ..... what a load of hogwash!

very briefly .... our biz is m/s, consistently profitable, with a client base that is 98% o'seas (thus all export which apparently uk ltd is clamouring for) .... we had banked with RBS for about 15 years and had a very good relationship including an invoice discounting system; we were all operating very happily, successfully and profitably..... we wanted to expand prudently, but RBS effectively forced us to bank elsewhere (we have - at ABN) because under their new regime, they could not pigeonhole us, and their new invoice discounting system could not accept our invoices for china, saudi, india and most south american countries, despite the fact that some of the companies in those regions are serious multi-nationals, and others were of very significant size and credit-worthiness within their own region

so, RBS, cut the crap!

indeed, over the last 20+ years (banks were much more "sensible" before that) we have consistently found uk banks to be totally incapable of commercial thought processes and have thus often found funding when needed either in nl or germany or occasionally in f/e

That sounds disgraceful and just adds fuel to the charge that some in the banking industry are there to serve disproportionally the banking industry.

and that story is 100% true .....

when we first moved (from barclays) to rbs, rbs's reaction was that though they didn't really understand the business - it's marginally esoteric but hardly extravagantly so - they quite liked what they saw and were happy to take us on board; we never ever failed on a payment or even a forecast .... now, unless you tick ever single box as set out by their "grey" credit committee, you are effectively thrown out of the door

particularly annoying, was rbs's teeth-sucking reaction to our significant biz with china, india, saudi and south america ..... rbs did not want to recognise that these are the very areas where economies are still growing apace ..... on the other hand, greece, portugal, spain and ireland were 100% acceptable credit risk!

the reaction from the dutch was similar to what we had first encountered at rbs ..... as our business is leasing shipping containers for liquids, chemicals and gases, the dutch have some understanding as rotterdam is "centre of the world" for that industry, but it's hardly a zillion miles from uk and london!

RBS chairman says aiming for share sale by end 2014

LONDON | Tue May 14, 2013 2:21pm BST

(Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland's chairman Philip Hampton said the bank was planning to be in a position for the government to start selling its shares by the end of 2014.

Hampton also said that he was satisfied with the bank's capital position and plans to strengthen it in order to meet tougher regulatory requirements.

"We have the ambition of putting the government in a position to sell the shares towards the end of 2014. Then it is the government's decision," Hampton told reporters before the bank's AGM on Tuesday.