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 -

It will be interesting to see what effect that announcement has on the share price.

Trading Update

Q3 2014 Trading Update

RBS today provides an update on Q3 2014 financial performance.

· Q3 2014 has seen continued improvement in economic conditions and asset prices in our key markets, including Ireland. This has supported a further quarter of strong operating performance by RBS Capital Resolution ("RCR"). We anticipate that RCR will record net impairment provision releases in the region of £0.5bn in Q3 2014.

· RCR's future overall costs and speed of wind-down remain subject to significant potential volatility. The potential exists, if market conditions remain favourable, for RCR to incur limited future impairments and disposal losses, and an accelerated timetable to achieve its wind-down goals.

· Rising Irish residential property prices combined with pro-active debt management has resulted in lower arrears in Ulster (excluding RCR), within Personal & Business Banking. As a result we expect Ulster to record net provision releases in the region of £0.3bn in Q3 2014. The potential exists for further releases in future, if market conditions continue to improve.

· There has been an absence of large one-off impairments and lower levels of new non-performing loans in the rest of RBS's business during Q3 2014.

· RBS now expects to significantly outperform its previous guidance of c£1bn total impairments for FY 2014. Previously disclosed uncertainties remain, particularly relating to conduct and litigation matters.

· Corporate & Institutional Banking revenues have been weaker than anticipated in the third quarter.

· RBS took advantage of improved market prices to dispose of c€9bn legacy available for sale debt securities. These disposals generated a loss of around £0.2bn in Centre revenues. We expect these transactions to be moderately capital ratio accretive.

The figures quoted in this statement are preliminary estimates and unaudited. RBS will release its Q3 2014 Interim Management Statement on 31 October 2014.

UK closer to selling shares in bailed-out RBS - UKFI

(Reuters) - The body that manages Britain's bank stakes said it is closer to selling shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and has seen growing appetite from financial institutions interested in buying the shares.

Oliver Holborn, head of capital markets at UK Financial Investments (UKFI), also said he had met with the agency's advisor JP Morgan more than 5 times to discuss the issue during the past month.

Interim Management Statement

EBA Stress Test Result Correction 21 November 2014

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc ("RBS") has recognised an error in its calculation of the modelled Common Equity Tier 1 ratio ("CET1") for the 2014 European Banking Authority ("EBA") stress test results, originally published on 26 October 2014. This led to RBS's published CET1 stress test ratios being overstated. This error relates solely to the EBA stress test. RBS's reported CET1 regulatory capital ratio as at 30 September 2014 of 10.8% is not affected.

more...

3+ year high earlier @399.80p.

On edit - make that 400.20p.

Statement on the publication of the 2014 Bank of England stress test results

A piece in one of my financial comics says that Gordon Brown is not too far away from becoming Chairman of RBS.

After the May election he will no longer be an MP and will need something to do.

Funnily enough, Royal Bank of Scotland will be needing a new chairman, since Sir Philip Hampton will be switching to GlaxoSmithKline late in 2015.

Brown's CV looks right and he knows about finance (Yes? Yes!) and he is Scottish which should help with this particular bank. He can turn around dire situations and also play the long game (eg, against Tony Blair). RBS also owes him a favour after he rode to the rescue in 2009.

In fact, he is very near the absolute perfect match for the job!

RBS Royal Bank Scotland looks to have been way oversold a presents an opportunity for a medium term trade. TGT 415p

Royal Bank of Scotland has come under fire again for mis-selling government-backed loans to small businesses.

Following an internal investigation, the state-backed giant has admitted failings in the way it sold Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) loans.

The EFG was set up in 2009 to boost lending by providing a 75 per cent government guarantee to banks willing to lend to viable small businesses which could not get credit.

But RBS, the biggest user of the scheme, says staff incorrectly told some customers they were covered by the government guarantee.

This lulled small firms into a false sense of security and after several customers defaulted on their loan repayments, they discovered that they remained liable to the bank for the entire outstanding loan.

The Federation of Small Businesses said the revelations would hurt already-poor levels of trust between businesses and banks.

John Allan, its national chairman, added: ‘We are deeply disappointed that yet another example of a bank mis-selling to businesses has come to light. It is completely unacceptable for firms to be misled in this way.’

RBS (up 0.1p to 362.8p) initially played down the damaging allegations. But an internal investigation led by Alison Rose, the head of commercial and private banking, has found evidence RBS was at fault.

The failings infuriated business secretary Vince Cable who visited senior RBS executives to discuss the problem. He said: ‘I have asked that RBS puts the situation right as quickly as possible, so that neither RBS customers nor taxpayers are adversely affected.’

The bank has started to contact up to 1,800 customers who have defaulted on their loan or struggled to meet their repayments. It said just 320 have defaulted.

Daily Mail

Deutsche Bank lost $150million on CHF volatility and Barclays lost "tens of millions" according to Dow Jones reports. I wouldn't touch this share with a bargepole right now.

Loads errrrrrr money doodlemug.

Chart of the week: Royal Bank of Scotland - ideal trade at low risk

Jefferies International Buy 384.00 384.00 500.00 530.00 Reiterates

Looking quite strong.

Results 26th Feb - Financial Calendar

17 Feb 15 Morgan Stanley Equal weight 395.70 405.00 425.00 Retains

16 Feb 15 Investec Sell 395.70 380.00 380.00 Downgrades

Post split high is 403.90p

Final results Thursday 26th February.

Exclusive - RBS asks restructuring chief to shrink investment bank

404.40 high.

Final Results part 1

Statutory operating profit before tax, which excludes results from discontinued operations, was £2,643 million compared with an operating loss of £8,849 million in 2013.

2014 was a year of significant progress for the bank, in which we delivered against all our commitments. In line with the new strategy it set out in 2014, RBS has:

● Implemented a new organisational design for a more UK-centred bank with focused international capabilities, built around its strongest customer franchises.

● Exceeded its 2014 cost reduction targets with savings of £1.1 billion.

● Strengthened its Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio by 2.6 percentage points to 11.2% at the end of 2014, assisted by £4.8 billion of net capital release from RCR disposals and run-off.

● Successfully listed Citizens as a step towards full divestment by the end of 2016.

● Reached agreement with HM Treasury on the restructuring of the Dividend Access Share (DAS) and paid an initial dividend of £320 million.

● Completed much of the orderly run-down and closure of the US asset-backed product business, removing £15 billion of RWAs from the balance sheet.

● Completed a strategic review of Ulster Bank and the wealth businesses, launching a sales process for the international private banking activities(2).

● Continued to rationalise, simplify and strengthen operating systems and processes, with a more secure mobile banking platform, faster overnight batch processing and key services available to customers 99.96% of the time.

● Made our products simpler and fairer for customers, ending zero per cent balance transfers, halting teaser rates on savings accounts that penalise existing customers and explaining all charges for personal and business customers on one side of A4 paper.