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 -

stops it looking like a penny stock, even if that's what it is

cynic exactly purely cosmetic, unfortunately consolidation usually results in a fall in market value. If the government allow this to happen will LLOY be forced to follow suit?

Interim Management Statement - Part 1 of 6

RBS reports a Q1 2012 Group operating profit(1) of £1,184 million

Core RBS Q1 operating profit £1,667 million, return on tangible equity 11%

UK Retail, UK Corporate and Markets performed strongly

Non-Core run-down continues, funded assets down £11 billion to £83 billion

Group Core Tier 1 ratio 10.8%, liquidity metrics strong

RBS confirms £163bn emergency loan repayment

Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed that it is to repay the last of the £163bn in emergency loans it received from the US and UK governments.

The announcement came with its first quarter results. It reported a pre-tax loss of £1.4bn, compared with a loss of £116m in the same period last year.

Much of the loss came from changes in the valuation of RBS's debt. It made an operating profit of £1.2bn.

RBS has also set aside an extra £125m to cover claims for PPI mis-selling.

LONDON (ShareCast) - Nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) (RBS) is to repay the final tranche of notes issued under the government's Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS (KOSDAQ: 900040.KQ - news) ) next week, after posting a profit of more than a billion pounds in the first quarter of 2012. Excluding own credit adjustments, pre-tax profit totalled £1,052m. Own credit adjustments, which reflect the increasing price of debt issued by RBS and therefore the assumed cost of buying it back, warranted a pre-tax charge of £2,456m, leaving a statutory pre-tax loss of £1,404m and an attributable loss of £1,524m.

Nomura has maintained its reduce rating and 26p target price for part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland, but acknowledges that the first-quarter results were in line and 'modestly better than Lloyds'.

"The RBS Q1 results were similar to our expectations and we thus expect limited movement in current-year profit expectations," the broker said. It added that RBS's balance sheet restructuring has happened faster than it had expected.

However, Nomura has maintained its negative view on the stock saying that both RBS and Lloyds will "find it difficult" to generate sustainable long-term value in a difficult operating environment whilst still needing to further restructure their balance sheets.

The obvious solution to their problems is to float/sell some of their larger businesses... NatWest, Directline,Scottish Widows, Halifax, Bank of Scotland etc. Downsizing should be the order of the day not remaining monolithic.HSBA has already started in the US by selling part of their credit card business.

Royal Bank of Scotland to cut 618 jobs

The Royal Bank of Scotland has said it will cut 618 jobs in response to new banking rules coming into force at the end of 2012.

The bank, which is 82%-owned by the government, said it was having to make the cuts because of the new Retail Distribution Review legislation.

Under the new rules customers will be charged a fee for investment advice from a qualified professional.

But the bank said it would also be creating 351 new roles.

The job cuts come on top of the 35,500 already made since the financial crisis struck in 2008.

The Unite union described the job losses as "brutal".

Response to Moody's Rating Action

I wonder how many of those job cuts were IT workers employed to test software prior to installation.

Ministers eye nationalising Royal Bank of Scotland - FT

LONDON | Thu Aug 2, 2012 1:05am BST

(Reuters) - Senior British government figures are discussing the possibility of buying out private investors in Royal Bank of Scotland, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Ministers are discussing a potential full nationalisation of RBS, which is already 82 percent owned by the government, to help boost business lending to companies.

The remaining 18 percent of the bank is owned by private investors and it would cost the government around 5 billion pounds to buy them out, the FT said.

Interim Results - part 1 of 8

Highlights


Continued progress on strengthening and derisking the bank

· Non-Core third party assets were down £22 billion in H1 to £72 billion, with year-end targets revised down further to £60-65 billion.

· Group Core Tier 1 ratio improved to 11.1%, with a net £4 billion reduction in risk-weighted assets in H1 2012 despite increases to regulatory risk-weightings.

· Excluding capital relief from the Asset Protection Scheme (APS), the Core Tier 1 ratio was 10.3%. The Group intends to exit the APS in H2 2012, subject to Financial Services Authority approval.

· Customer deposits grew by £7 billion from a year earlier, with minimal impact from a credit rating downgrade during Q2 2012. Group loan:deposit ratio improved further to 104%.

· Short-term wholesale borrowings were reduced further by £40 billion during H1 2012 to £62 billion. This is covered 2.5 times by a significant liquidity buffer of £156 billion.

Operating profit stable in H1 2012

· H1 2012 Group operating profit(1) was £1,834 million, after a £125 million provision for costs arising from the technology incident in June 2012 and a £50 million provision for interest rate swap mis-selling. Excluding these provisions, the results were in line with H1 2011.

· Core operating profit was £3,185 million in H1 2012, delivering a return on equity (ROE) of 10.2%. Retail & Commercial, excluding Ulster Bank, showed favourable trends in Q2, with H1 ROE at 14.4%. H1 ROE for our Markets business was 14.0%.

· Q2 Group operating profit was £650 million, down £183 million versus Q2 2011 as lower Markets revenues and the technology incident provision were only partially offset by lower Non-Core losses.

Favourable credit trends and cost control continue

· Group impairment losses totalled £2,649 million in H1 2012, down £1,562 million (37%) from H1 2011. Core impairments were down £172 million, or 10%, with favourable trends particularly in UK Retail and US Retail & Commercial; Non-Core saw a significant reduction in impairment charges on the Ulster Bank portfolio.

· Core expenses were flat in H1 relative to a year ago, as the Group's cost reduction programme and the restructuring of Markets and International Banking offset the cost of the one-off provisions.

· Staff costs were 4% lower than in H1 2011, with employee numbers down by 5,700, principally in Markets and International Banking.

RBS poised to float insurance arm

Royal Bank of Scotland has ended talks to sell Direct Line Group to private equity firms and will instead launch a long-anticipated flotation of its insurance arm within a matter of weeks.

rather missed the boat today as was having my crown fitted, but shall look again in the morning ...... surely a major beneficiary of today's news, notwithstanding the ongoing rumbles about libor fixing etc

so i bought some this morning

With so much of the company owned by the Government, no divi and a major consolidation of the stock recently, which just masks the problems, I can't see why anyone would want to invest here atm. Most other banks are a far better investment imo.

like which? ..... i certainly have no interest in the divi, and while BARC is (i think) the only bank that wasn't bailed out by US, they have their own significant problems

There are so many shorts open, most of which cannot tolerate big rises, in such a short time.

that's a sound i'll enjoy hearing - bears squeaking loudly!

NOt started yet. I think many of them will start acting later today, IMO.