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 -

They wont have any branches left at this rate.

RNS today. Government stake reduced to 70.85% from previous notification of 71.85%.

Of course they are going to sell it at a loss just as things start looking up!

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (together with its subsidiaries, "RBS") has reached a settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA") as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to resolve claims by FHFA in relation to RBS's issuance and underwriting of approximately US$32 billion (GBP25 billion) of residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS") in the US. As part of the settlement, FHFA's outstanding litigation against RBS will be withdrawn.

Half Year Report

Highlights

● Tangible net asset value (TNAV) per share of 300p increased by 4p, compared with 31 December 2016, principally reflecting the H1 2017 attributable profit.

PBB, CPB and NatWest Markets adjusted operating performance

● Across our three customer facing businesses, PBB, CPB and NatWest Markets, adjusted operating profit of £2,678 million was £608 million, or 29.4%, higher than H1 2016.

● UK PBB adjusted operating profit of £1,270 million was £205 million, or 19.2%, higher than H1 2016. Total income of £2,755 million was £140 million, or 5.4%, higher driven by increased lending, with net loans and advances 9.9% higher at £138.5 billion.

● Ulster Bank RoI adjusted operating profit of £90 million was £32 million, or 26.2%, lower than H1 2016 principally reflecting a lower net impairment release and reduced income on free funds.

● Commercial Banking adjusted operating profit of £781 million was £118 million, or 17.8%, higher than H1 2016 primarily reflecting reduced expenses associated with lower headcount and an intangible asset write-down in H1 2016. In addition income was £51 million, or 3.0%, higher at £1,750 million driven by customer deposit growth and re-pricing benefits across lending and deposits.

● Private Banking adjusted operating profit of £96 million was £23 million, or 31.5%, higher than H1 2016 driven by a £38 million, or 14.8%, reduction in adjusted operating expenses principally reflecting cost reduction initiatives.

● RBS International adjusted operating profit of £100 million reduced by £6 million, or 5.7%, compared with H1 2016 driven by a £22 million, or 32.4%, increase in adjusted operating expenses principally reflecting increased regulatory costs in relation to ring-fencing.

● NatWest Markets adjusted income of £980 million was £299 million, or 43.9%, higher than H1 2016. An adjusted operating profit of £341 million compared with £41 million in H1 2016.

Capital Resolution, Williams & Glyn and Central items adjusted operating performance

● Capital Resolution adjusted operating loss of £135 million was £848 million lower than H1 2016 principally reflecting materially lower disposal losses and impairment charges in H1 2017 and a £282 million, or 68.0%, reduction in adjusted operating expenses to £133 million. RWAs of £26.6 billion were £15.7 billion, or 37.1%, lower than H1 2016.

● Williams & Glyn adjusted operating profit increased by £37 million, or 18.8%, to £234 million driven by a £39 million, or 19.8%, reduction in adjusted operating expenses reflecting a substantial reduction in headcount.

● Central items adjusted operating profit of £284 million, compared with a loss of £128 million in H1 2016, included a £51 million VAT recovery (H1 2016 - £227 million) and a £154 million gain in respect of IFRS volatility (H1 2016 - £668 million loss).

Q2 2017 RBS Performance Summary

● An attributable profit of £680 million compared with a loss of £1,077 million in Q2 2016 and a profit of £259 million in Q1 2017. The Q2 2016 loss included litigation and conduct costs of £1,284 million.

● An adjusted operating profit of £1,690 million was £974 million higher than Q2 2016 and was £319 million above Q1 2017 principally reflecting an IFRS volatility gain of £172 million, compared with a loss of £18 million in Q1 2017.

● Across our three customer facing businesses, PBB, CPB and NatWest Markets, adjusted operating profit of £1,352 million was £305 million, or 29.1%, higher than Q2 2016. Adjusted RoTE was 14.3% compared with 11.0% in Q2 2016.

● Q2 2017 NIM of 2.13% was 8 basis points lower than Q2 2016 principally reflecting the impact of asset margin pressure and mix impacts across the core businesses. Compared with Q1 2017, NIM reduced by 11 basis points to 2.13%, with the majority of the reduction driven by a conscious build-up in liquidity as we manage for litigation and conduct costs, including FHFA, and accelerate MREL and other wholesale funding plans into H1 2017. In addition, conditions in the UK mortgage market have become more competitive, contributing to a 9 basis point reduction in UK PBB NIM.

● Net loans and advances across PBB and CPB increased by £1.8 billion in the quarter to £277.7 billion driven by mortgage growth in UK PBB.

52 week high.

Seems to have got on an uptrend for some reason and far stronger than LLOY or BARC.

Only another 50 points and I'll have to go and find my spreadsheet to find out what I paid ;-)

Thanks Skinny. I'm looking at the last couple of month or and RBS seems to have found a strong uptrend. BARC is struggling I think due to concerns around inappropriate trading abroad. LLOY disappoints me.

I don't hold any RBS currently, but LLOY are one of my bigger holdings - SIPP, ISA and S/B - lowest price paid @24.48p.

It appears my best purchase that I still hold on LLOY was on 4.8.11 at 37p.
Got some RBS the same day at 31p which I still hold too. No idea what it's worth in new money as there's been a consolidation. Think I was fairly disappointed when I last worked it out.

Going nicely still. Whilst most of mine were bought between 330 and 360 it appears I have a few from 231 which I was so fed up with RBS I had forgotten about

Happy to sit on the trend for the moment.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has sold some of its holding in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), the bank which it rescued in the 2008 financial crisis, but has taken a loss of more than 2 billion pounds on the deal.
UK Government Investments sold a 7.7 percent stake in a placement overnight to institutional investors at 271 pence a share, almost half of what the government paid during its initial and largest capital injection into RBS, which it bailed out for a total of 45.5 billion pounds.

“This sale represents a significant step in returning RBS to full private ownership and putting the financial crisis behind us,” Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc "RBS" - Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference

Ross McEwan, RBS CEO, will participate in a fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Frankfurt on Thursday 7th June 2018 at 16:30 (BST). A live audio webcast will be available on our website www.rbs.com/ir.

“This sale represents a significant step in returning RBS to full private ownership and putting the financial crisis behind us,” Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.

Got hand it to him. Dressing up a colossal loss as a positive.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) will pay its first dividend since it nearly collapsed and took a state bailout in 2008, paving the way for the government to further reduce its stake in the lender.

Taxpayer-owned RBS said it would pay an interim dividend of 2 pence per share, subject to the finalization of a $4.9 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over the bank’s sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run up to the financial crisis.

The dividend marks a milestone in RBS’s rocky road to rehabilitation over the last decade. Together with hefty cuts made to its investment bank and international business, it could shift its profile with investors from a risky bet into a safe, predictable value stock.

“We’re pleased but not totally surprised about the dividend news, it just show they have really cleaned the bank up and it’s one of the best capitalized banks in Europe now,” said Alasdair McKinnon, manager at The Scottish Investment Trust which owns RBS shares.

Until its agreement in May, the looming settlement had blocked RBS’s restoration of dividends, excluding a whole class of income-focused investors from buying its stock.

Shore Capital Hold 258.95 290.00 285.00 Retains

A nice little kick-through as the dividend stream has started and the income funds can now buy.

I assume the weakness in LLOY today is funds switching out of LLOY into RBS. I could be wrong

UBS today upgrades its investment rating on Royal Bank of Scotland Group (The) PLC (LON:RBS) to buy (from neutral) and raised its price target to 300p (from 285p)

Interim Management Statement

RBS reported an operating profit before tax of £961 million for Q3 2018, compared with £871 million in Q3 2017, and £2,787 million for the year to date.

● Q3 2018 attributable profit of £448 million and £1,336 million for the year to date.

Income stable in a competitive market:

● Income increased by £268 million, or 2.7%, for the year to date compared with 2017. Excluding NatWest Markets and Central items and notable items in UK PBB and Commercial Banking, income was broadly stable.

● Q3 2018 income increased by £485 million, or 15.4%, compared with Q3 2017 principally reflecting indemnity insurance recoveries of £272 million and lower disposal losses.

● Q3 2018 net interest margin of 1.93% decreased by 8 basis points compared with Q2 2018. Excluding one-off items, net interest margin was down 5 basis points, of which 3 basis points related to competitive pressure and 2 basis points due to higher average liquidity balances.

Lower costs through continued transformation and increased digitisation:

● Compared with 2017, other expenses for the year to date decreased by £183 million, or 3.3%, excluding VAT releases in 2017, and FTEs reduced by 6.8%.

● We continue to transition from physical to digital services. 6.2 million customers now regularly use our mobile app, 14% higher than Q4 2017. In UK PBB, total digital sales increased by 22% for the year to date, representing 43% of all sales.

Strong capital position:

● CET1 ratio of 16.7% increased by 60 basis points in the quarter reflecting further RWA reductions and the attributable profit for Q3 2018.

● RWAs decreased by £4.3 billion in the quarter primarily reflecting reductions in NatWest Markets and the impact of capital initiatives in Commercial Banking.

● We have taken an additional £100 million impairment charge reflecting the more uncertain economic outlook and a further net £60 million impairment charge in our Irish business in relation to ongoing sales from our loan book to further reduce the level of non performing loans. Underlying credit conditions remained benign during the quarter.

● Following final settlement with the US Department of Justice, RBS declared a 2p interim dividend on 14 August 2018.

Outlook and recent developments (1)

We retain the outlook guidance we provided in the 2017 Annual Results document.

Further to previously announced plans to be operationally ready to serve our European Economic Area (EEA) customers when the UK leaves the European Union on 29 March 2019, we have received approval from the Dutch regulator (DNB) for the repurposing of the existing NatWest Markets N.V. (formerly RBS N.V.) banking licence.

Note:

(1)

The targets, expectations and trends (including but not limited to impairment provisions) in this document represent management's current expectations and are subject to change, including as a result of the "Risk Factors" on pages 372 to 402 of the 2017 Annual Report and Accounts and the Summary Risk Factors on pages 48 and 49 of the 2018 Interim Results. These statements constitute forward-looking statements; refer to Forward-looking statements in this document.

Shore Capital Buy 224.10 Reiterates