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 -

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 304.40 320.00 320.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 304.40 315.00 310.00 Upgrades

Citigroup Sell 304.40 270.00 270.00 Reiterates

Oh goodie!

Exclusive - Top investors to file 1 billion pounds legal claims against RBS : sources

(Reuters) - Three of Britain's biggest investors are expected to file lawsuits against Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) next week saying they were misled over its 2008 rights issue and seeking to claw back more than 1 billion pounds, people familiar with the matter said.

Legal & General (LGEN.L), which was the biggest investor in RBS at the time of the rights issue, is expected to file a claim, a person close to the insurer said on Friday.

Standard Life (SL.L) and M&G Investment Management, which is owned by Prudential (PRU.L), are also set to file claims, two other sources familiar with the matter said. Those firms were both among the ten biggest investors in RBS.

The claims are expected to be filed in a London court on Wednesday, the sources said.

Interim Management Statement

Key points

Q1 2014 operating performance

● Income was down 2% compared with Q1 2013 at £5,053 million, with deposit repricing and a modest revival in lending volumes during the quarter leading to improvements in UK Retail and UK Corporate. Markets income was seasonally stronger than in Q4 2013 but lower than in Q1 2013, reflecting its smaller balance sheet and reduced risk levels.

● Expenses were 6% lower than in Q1 2013 at £3,190 million, with Markets down 15% and other banking businesses down 3%. Incremental cost savings have been delivered principally from tactical cost control initiatives. The benefits from strategic cost reduction initiatives will feed through in later quarters.

● Impairments were down £671 million from Q1 2013, with significant improvements in Ulster Bank, down 80% and UK Corporate, down 66%. Impairments in RCR totalled £108 million in Q1 2014 whereas Non-Core totalled £433 million in Q1 2013. The quarter benefited from no meaningful single name impairments.

● Risk elements in lending decreased by £2.0 billion to £37.4 billion, as a percentage of loans represented 9.0% (31 December 2013 - 9.4%).


● Operating profit totalled £1,501 million, up from £747 million in Q1 2013, driven by stronger business performance in UK Retail and UK Corporate, together with the turnaround at Ulster Bank, which reported its first quarterly operating profit since 2009.

● Q1 2014 benefited from c.£200 million of Treasury AFS gains and a £191 million profit on the sale of the remaining stake in DLG.

● Profit attributable to shareholders was £1,195 million, compared with £393 million in Q1 2013 and a loss of £8,702 million in Q4 2013.

● Tangible net asset value per ordinary and B share was 376p at 31 March 2014, compared with 363p at 31 December 2013.


Highlights

Balance sheet

● Funded assets were £130 billion lower than in Q1 2013 at £746 billion, principally driven by the reshaping of the Markets balance sheet. Compared with Q4 2013, funded assets were up £7 billion, reflecting a limited pick-up in client driven trading activity in Markets and stronger lending volumes, particularly in UK mortgages.

○ Gross new mortgage lending in Q1 2014 was £4.4 billion in UK Retail, a market share of 9.5%, including more than 4,700 approvals assisting young people and families to buy their first home through the Government's Help to Buy scheme. Net new lending of £1.2 billion took the UK Retail mortgage portfolio to more than £100 billion for the first time.

○ Modest growth resumed in the UK Corporate loan book. SMEs drew down £2.4 billion of new term lending in Q1 2014, up 23% from Q1 2013, with net term lending to trading SMEs turning positive.

○ Total net lending flows reported within the scope of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) were plus £63 million in Q1 2014. The FLS no longer includes household lending flows.

● RWAs on an end-point CRR basis, were down £73 billion from Q1 2013, with approximately a third of the reduction in Markets, principally reflecting the strategic repositioning of this business.

● The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio was 9.4%(4) at 31 March 2014, compared with 8.6% at the end of 2013. RBS remains well on track to achieve its target CET1 ratio of 11% by the end of 2015 and 12% or above by the end of 2016.

● RCR reduced RWA equivalents by £14 billion during Q1 2014 to £51 billion, with operating losses lower than expected at £114 million.

Building the number one bank for trust and service in the UK

● RBS has made good progress towards developing detailed implementation plans for its new structure, built around three businesses: Personal & Business Banking, Commercial & Private Banking, and Corporate & Institutional Banking.

● Each business is focused on delivering the customer commitments announced on 27 February 2014. In March, RBS stopped offering deals to new customers that are not available to existing customers, including 0% credit card balance transfers and teaser rates on savings accounts.

● After placing 325 business specialists in branches in 2013, a further 40 experienced relationship managers have been allocated to serve our commercial customers, with a central focus on lending.

● By the end of March 2014, pro-active 'Statements of Appetite' had been sent to more than 270,000 SME customers, offering in excess of £10 billion of new or additional funding.

Out of auction +10%.

Just closed a 2day S/B +42p - and still holding long(er) term.

In the middle of the gap.

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 330.75 320.00 320.00 Reiterates

Investec Hold 335.55 325.00 325.00 Reiterates

2 May 2014



Allotment and Issue of New Ordinary Shares



The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (the "Company") announces the allotment and issue of 32,751,577 new ordinary shares (the "New Ordinary Shares") of the Company at a subscription price of 305.3288 pence per New Ordinary Share. The shares have been sold in the market. The subscription price was determined by reference to the average market price during a period since the Company's Full Year 2013 Results on 27 February 2014. The shares being issued are for the purposes of partly neutralising the impact of 2014 coupon payments on discretionary hybrid capital from a Core Tier 1 capital perspective, as explained in the Company's Full Year 2013 Results.

(Reuters) - Hundreds more investors have joined an unprecedented group legal action against Royal Bank of Scotland, alleging they were misled during an emergency cash call in 2008, and are claiming damages of around 4 billion pounds.

RBoS Action Group, which represents the largest group of shareholders, said it had filed claims by Friday and would lodge more next week. The claims could be for at least 1.2 billion pounds.

That adds to claims from three other groups that total more than 2.5 billion pounds on behalf of big financial institutions and thousands of small investors in the first American-style class action set to hit English courts.

Thursday marked the six-year anniversary of when the shares RBS sold in its emergency rights issue began trading and could be the cut-off point under English law after which damages claims are no longer be accepted.

Fred Goodwin, the former boss of the now state-backed RBS, asked shareholders to stump up 12 billion pounds at the height of the credit crisis to shore up the bank's capital position, which fell dangerously low after it paid top dollar for parts of Dutch peer ABN Amro and lost billions on U.S. credit market assets.

Under Goodwin, dubbed "Fred the Shred", RBS staged a meteoric rise to global prominence, expanding so aggressively into wholesale banking that its near-failure at the height of the credit crisis threatened to fell the UK financial system. Shareholders lost around 80 percent of their investments.

We had many Shareholders actions against many. That's nothing more than hope

Interims early.

Preliminary Interim Results 2014

Bosch! (technical term) out of auction +9.7%.

Numis Hold 373.55 300.00 300.00 Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 373.55 320.00 320.00 Reiterates

i can't even pretend that i had thought of buying these, or any other bank for that matter
still, i have scored modestly with Carrilion, so i shouldn't be greedy :-)

A close and hold above 380 would be fairly significant - maybe too much for today though.

Tempted to take a short against my really, really long term holding at these levels.

Did so and closed for +12.

Half Yearly Report - Part 1

Half Yearly Report - Part 2

Half Yearly Report - Part 3

RBS set to raise $4 billion from U.S. listing of Citizens

(Reuters) - State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland aims to raise up to $4 billion (3 billion pounds) from the share flotation of its U.S. bank Citizens Financial Group this month, it was announced on Monday, putting it on track to be the biggest U.S. bank share offering this year.

Investec Hold 344.70 344.20 340.00 355.00 Upgrades

SCOTTISH REFERENDUM

In response to press speculation in relation to re-domicile, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc ("RBS") confirms that, as set out in the risk disclosures in RBS's Annual Report, there are a number of material uncertainties arising from the Scottish referendum vote which could have a bearing on the Bank's credit ratings, and the fiscal, monetary, legal and regulatory landscape to which it is subject. For this reason, RBS has undertaken contingency planning for the possible business implications of a 'Yes' vote. RBS believes that this is the responsible and prudent thing to do and something that its customers, staff and shareholders would expect it to do.

As part of such contingency planning, RBS believes that it would be necessary to re-domicile the Bank's holding company and its primary rated operating entity (The Royal Bank of Scotland plc) to England. In the event of a 'Yes' vote, the decision to re-domicile should have no impact on everyday banking services used by our customers throughout the British Isles. However, RBS believes that it would be the most effective way to provide clarity to all our stakeholders and mitigate the risks previously identified in our Annual Report.

The vote on independence is a matter for the Scottish people. Scotland has been RBS's home since 1727. RBS intends to retain a significant level of its operations and employment in Scotland to support its customers there and the activities of the whole Bank.