Why is it that those who have got this country and the world in the mess it is today continue to do the same by creating false rumours that the bank will be nationalised. Does the government not have enough on its hands already with Northern Rock. What the government has proposed today may not work but atleast it is better than doing nothing, the collapse of these banks will effect every indiviual whether rich or poor!
It is time these indivuiduals who create this false sense of in security and doom be ignored!

Morning fellas RBS to finish today.

At over 70% owned by us the british public I would suggest that is virtually nationalised anyway.

tazmaniandevil786 - I don't think it is the people who got us into this mess.
FWIW I believe they are:-
1), GB as Chancellor he spent what we couldn't afford and hadn't earned.
2), as PM he continued to paper-over the cracks, instead of telling us this is his way ( ie deflecting some Blame to Tony).
3)Bank Execs who oversaw their Managers , Branches and employees put Bonuses above prudence. These Execs were well-paid and didn't need "popularity", yet still they carried on without any sign of slowing-down.
4)Nouveau Banks ( that's NRK), who appeared to need control by an Uncle to stop their stupidity they obscured from shareholders.
5) way down the line, house-agents that continued to expand housing to the point where there seems to be an oversupply of single-execs flatlets, often with little kitchen facility.
6) Our Regulators who irritate small-players and miss the Big Picture.

Sorry if that's too long.

. However, anyone knocking the stocks of Banks is onto a good thing as Folk sell-out, hoping they've done the right thing and thinking that even if their Bank doesn't get Nationalised, then they sure won't be handing out decent dividends.
To make profits, banks need to lend at good marginal rates, and suffer near-zero losses....normally this isn't difficult if you're supported by Savers . . . but it turns out most UK-Banks are admiting to lending overseas - and much (I suspect!) is wrapped-up in fancy derrivative instruments - but resting upon a pile of dodgy sub-prime. To support this they borrowed overseas and amongst themselves where the money-source was far from clear.
All these figures were real enough ( and intermediaries got paid bonuses), but their worth is "probably" 1c in the dollar as it spiralled out of control.
In any "Book" you can tolerate maybe 2% of write-offs - but if this approaches 5% there will be NO profit (after all the Back-office is paid). However, Banks do not know (so they say) and many shareholders suspect it will be a minimum of 10% and more-likey above 50% - after all if the customer accepts the "credit-rating" (ie without looking), why would you put-in some good stuff?

Do "Dodgy-Burgers" contain 50% good meat? - Of course not.

Compare this Financial fiasco with Tesco...as you tin of beans is swiped at the till, someone, far away is order its replacement, orgaising the packing, transport and the space needed on a shelf maybe a short-distance from where you picked it.
-Beep and supermarket-Execs know what's what - and how many Banks can match this?

5) looks totally inaccurate, nonsensical and irrelevant in any case

Thanks to the Banksters particularly Sir Fred the UK is now doomed.

It's not looking rosy I must admit, but some companies are still trading very well, look at the last weeks trading updates from igg, sdl, asc,mtc amec,jd, dom,and dnlm all very positive indeed. There are plenty of downbeat trading updates and results around, but not all sectors are in dire straights.

especially asc spitfire, agree

companies with wide international exposure are much better insulated - e.g. in our experience south am, m/e, india and parts of f/e continue with little slowdown ..... on the other hand, usa where we have little exposure, is a disaster

many companies are feeling the effects of a weak pound now, and the ones that have earning in dollars and euros will see a significant positive impact this year.

agree with asc tomasz, I nearly brought some monday morning, very good update but a nagging worry about margin erosion stopped me.

don't confuse currency games (we decided to account in $ some time ago) with volume and t/o and profitability

having said that some companies will still benefit from a positive impact of exchange rate movements which will become more evident this year.

spitfire,margin erosion asc will cost just about 3% of final income CEO Nick said.no reason for worrys

Interesting looking chart, beginning to look like a New York skyline!

lol.

What is the problem shorters?

This cannot bankrupt as the government started to support it similar to the way it supported British Energy at the time it was just 4p a share.
NOW CHECK THE PRICE of BGY.

Issue at 37p a share may look too cheap by September. This will be more interesting if shorters leave their position open.
Some of them gain over 1000% if close at these prices.

UP 3% TO 25.8p

Sell RBS and Barclays, says UBS


UBS cuts recommendations on RBS and Barclays to sell from neutral.

Broker suggests the market 'has yet to fully appreciate the substantial dilution in UK banks'.

i say buy as recovery is on its way and we could profit from just sit back and enjoy the ride

i say buy as well

UP ONLY 13% TODAY. LONG TERM BUY.

yes......10 years at leAST!!! LOL

I would say SELL as RBS's fundamentals for both 2009 and 2010 are challenging.

i find banks in general are a very difficult call at the moment ....... fundamentals may indicate sell, but momentum the opposite ...... certainly if you are an alert and active trader, following the momentum is actually the safer/better bet, though if you have decent profits, then realising at least some of it would be the most intelligent call of all

fundamentals are awful for banks but sp seems to be rising as market covers its ears to bad news now. next 2 years at least are destined to be bad and even 5 years probably be poor...........10 years time probably time to look at it as i said!

although maybe buy rbs as hyleo predicts sell, lol

Imo, trade RBS but don't become an investor yet.

Cynic, I find every share difficult to call in this atmosphere.

But the trends of the major banks are up.

Based on the charts they can go further.

I hold RBS, Barclays and Lloyds. But will use a trading channel and trailing stops.

how long will it be before they are aloud to start paying a divy again ? any ideas

after they have paid back the govt's 70% stake i would guess?
LLOY were allowed to sell shares at a reduced rate[on a % owned basis, in lieu of shares. If memory serves me right 40/1 @ 38p]
pse DYOR as my facts may be askew[though not deliberate]
Alex

Liked the email from advfn.
Title is "Could RBS reach 120p‏". I am sure you can find it somewhere.

150M traded today Cazenove puts them on their buy list is some news about to break? Time they sold some of their assets , like Barclays did recently?

Looking at 40p again.

lets hope they keep going as nice rise over the last few days, at last some movement in the right direction

UPDATE: RBS Close To Sale Of Taiwan Assets To ANZ-Sources





By Amy Or

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

HONG KONG -(Dow Jones)- Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) will announce the sale of its Taiwan banking assets to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ.AU) as early as next week, people familiar with the situation said Thursday.

One of them said Taiwan would be the first of several Asian retail and commercial banking assets that RBS will be selling. RBS's Taiwan investment banking operations will also be included in this sale, the person said.

The people didn't disclose the price of the acquisition.

The Taiwan sale comes after other people familiar with the situation said RBS was in advanced talks with ANZ over the sale of its operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Apart from those Asian markets, RBS is also selling its retail and commercial operations in India, Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It has also said it would close down its New Zealand operations.

ANZ's Melbourne-based spokesman Paul Edwards declined to comment on the Taiwan sale but said "discussions (with RBS) are progressing well."

RBS's Hong Kong based spokeswoman Yukmin Hui said the sale process of the Asian retail and commercial assets is "well advanced," but wouldn't comment on individual elements of the deal due to regulatory and confidentiality constraints.

"RBS will continue to retain its presence in 11 markets in Asia, including its securities business in Taiwan," she added. She didn't elaborate on what the securities business entailed.

RBS said earlier in the year that it planned to sell its retail and commercial businesses in the region, as part of efforts to dispose of noncore businesses it said were "thinly spread" and had yet to achieve "significant scale." But it left the door open to selling other noncore operations in the region as well.

The troubled lender's sale of Asian assets has attracted the attention of not just the primarily Australia-focused ANZ, but also Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN), which has a wide franchise in the region, other people familiar with the situation said earlier.

Initially, HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC), like Standard Chartered a U.K.-listed bank with a formidable Asian franchise, was reported to be interested in RBS's Asian assets. But earlier in the month, a person familiar with the deal said that HSBC hadn't submitted a bid for the assets.

RBS, which is 70%-owned by the U.K. government, employs 11,500 people in its Asian retail and commercial banking operations. Those businesses recorded an operating profit of GBP127 million in 2008 - just 1.8% of the contributions from the bank's global retail and commercial franchise.

-By Amy Or, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2832 2335; amy.or@dowjones.com

would be nice to see them hit the 50p mark by the end of the week before results come out.... well on there way today woop woop

RBS recorded group pretax profits of 15m, excluding the write-down of goodwill.

RBS said it saw core bank recovery, with operating profit of 6.3bn, with strong income growth to 17.8bn, with GBM benefiting from favourable market conditions.

The bank's cost saving programme delivered 0.6bn in the period.

Total assets reduced by 574 billion, or 26%, since December 2008.

Stephen Hester, Group CEO, said: 'This was a momentous half year for RBS. We gave a full and clear account of our vulnerabilities to the 'credit crunch'. We set out comprehensive restructuring plans, now with clear performance targets. And implementation is well under way, though uncertainties remain.

Our first half results, as we had clearly warned, are poor with a net attributable loss of 1,042 million. However, they highlight well our core business potential, the hard work of our people in difficult times, the strength of our customer franchises and the vulnerabilities and economic headwinds we grapple with.'

MCB Bank To Pay PKR7.2 Billion For RBS Operations In Pakistan





KARACHI -(Dow Jones)- MCB Bank Ltd. (MCB.KA) has agreed to buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's (RBS) operations in Pakistan for PKR7.2 billion ($87 million), a spokesman for MCB Bank said Wednesday.

MCB Bank will acquire 99.37% of the operations for PKR4.22 per share in cash, while the remaining will be bought through a public tender, Kafeel Burney told Dow Jones Newswires.

The transaction will help the local bank to strengthen its operations in urban areas and broaden its product offering to retail and corporate customers, Mian Muhammad Mansha, chairman of MCB Bank, said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and KASB Bank advised MCB on the deal.

-By Haris Zamir, contributing to Jones Newswires; 91-11-43563354; meenakshi.ray@dowjones.com

hello i think that the bank is in better position , and the profit taker that came when the bank was traiding at 12p-20p are gone now after the sale off around 52p,good news are coming from every where .so i think that a pullback around 45p could push the bank near 70-80p and if they could pay some money back to uk gov big player could come and buy as well.and the picture will lock very good the chart has good sings as well so good trade and
enjoy the ride.