"Citizens parent reports loss on US operations" by Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | February 26, 2010
Royal Bank of Scotland Group reported that its US operations, which include Citizens Financial Group, swung to a loss last year as bad loans, low interest rates, and rising costs undercut earnings. The Royal said its US commercial and retail units lost $174 million in 2009, compared to a profit of $977 million in 2008....
The parent company is controlled by the British government following a taxpayer bailout in 2008. Companywide, Royal Bank reported that its overall losses narrowed to $5.5 billion last year from a 2008 loss of about $37 billion, a British record. Royal Bank has cut almost 20,000 jobs since November 2008. Chief executive Stephen Hester said the bank is likely to return to profit in 2011....
Hester, 49, was appointed CEO in November 2008, replacing Fred Goodwin. Hester will waive his right to a bonus of about $2.4 million amid public anger in Britain over such payments after taxpayers bailed out the banking system. Executives at Barclays PLC and Lloyds Banking Group are also forgoing bonuses. Analysts suggested there is little hope for good news from the parent company any time soon.
“The road to recovery will be long and difficult, there is no sign of a resumption of the dividend, and the stock overhang of the government stake will remain a millstone around its neck for some time to come,’’ said Richard Hunter, Head of UK Equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers. While US real estate markets have shown some signs of recovery, Citizens is still struggling from the market’s downturn....
One positive sign is....
The Amerikan MSM could find a kernel of corn in a log, if you know what I mean.
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Well, the fine won't help the taxpayers, will it?
"Royal Bank hit with record $43m fine" by Bloomberg News | March 31, 2010
LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland Group has been fined $43 million, the largest British regulatory penalty against a financial institution, for giving confidential pricing data to Barclays....
They all do it, don't they?
The fine was reduced from $50.3 million because RBS cooperated with the probe, the Office of Fair Trading said. RBS is the parent company of Citizens Financial Group in Providence.
--more--"Who is looking into these things over there?
"Inquiry puts embattled UK financial regulator to test" by Julia Werdigier, New York Times News | April 21, 2010
LONDON — Hector Sants, the chief of Britain’s financial regulator, pledged last year to reverse his agency’s reputation as a toothless tiger. He wanted to spread fear across the financial services industry by stepping up the aggressiveness of its inquiries and by pursuing more high-profile fraud cases.
His high-profile opportunity has arrived, and its name is Goldman Sachs.
Yesterday, his agency, the Financial Services Authority, started a formal investigation of Goldman. It said it was working closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued the bank last week claiming that it defrauded investors in a mortgage-related deal.
Goldman, which is based in New York but has large operations in London, reiterated its response to the SEC suit by denying any wrongdoing. Like its American counterpart, the FSA’s reputation was damaged badly by the financial crisis. The Conservative opposition party, which holds a slight lead in national polls, said it would dissolve the agency if it wins the general elections in two weeks because of its mistakes ahead of and during the financial crisis.
The pressure to deliver results is heightened further because ABN Amro was one of the banks that lost money in the Goldman deal under scrutiny. The bank was acquired in 2007 by the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now controlled by the British government after a series of bailouts.
Those seem to FOLLOW GOLDMAN SACHS AROUND, huh?
London has also attracted attention as the birthplace of many of the exotic mortgage-related investments, created by American and foreign banks alike, that set off the financial crisis....
Yes, the GREAT GLOBALISTS MASTERS and their GREED has DESTROYED their plans for GLOBAL GOVERNMENT!
Can you believe they are RIGHT BACK to doing the SAME OLD THINGS?
So what does Barclays have to say for itself on the insider trading?
"Barclays sees sustainable US recovery" by Bloomberg News | April 8, 2010
SAO PAULO — The US economy will avoid falling back into a recession as the labor market recovers and the government maintains fiscal and monetary stimulus, Barclays PLC said.
“We are extremely comfortable that the US will not be in a double-dip recession any time soon,’’ Barclays’s head of global economics and emerging-market research Piero Ghezzi said in a meeting in Sao Paulo. “We are seeing the basis for a sustainable recovery in the US.’’
Well, you know what is coming, America.... and the MSM and government are going to BLAME YOU, unemployed and foreclosed upon consumers after the banks, government, and Fed wasted so many tax dollars getting this sucker ready to fly (thought it was the last two quarters).
And YOU BLEW IT!!!
Payrolls rose by 162,000 workers in March, the third gain in the past five months and the biggest in three years, according to the Labor Department. The report made “pretty clear’’ the deepest US recession since the 1930s has ended, Robert Hall, of the National Bureau of Economic Research, said last week....
Yeah, the lying Labor Department puts out a report and its as if it were a proclamation from the Almighty himself.
Strong growth in the United States and China is compensating for sluggish activity in Europe, according to Ghezzi. “A global rebalancing is taking place,’’ Ghezzi said....
Must be another World War due soon.
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