RBS profits fall 22% | Bangkok Post: business

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest taxpayer-owned lender, said its profit fell 22% in the second quarter as revenue from its markets unit slipped amid the worsening European sovereign debt crisis.

Operating profit fell to 650 million pounds (US$1 billion) from 833 million pounds in the same period a year earlier, RBS said in a statement on Friday. The results were in line with analysys' estimates."We have continued to make the bank safer and stronger as we clean up problems of the past," CEO Stephen Hester, 51, said in the statement. "In a difficult moment for banks it is more essential than ever to drive through these changes."Hester has cut assets by more than 800 billion pounds, eliminated 36,000 jobs and scaled back RBS's securities and Irish units since he took over from Fred Goodwin when the bank was rescued in 2008.That restructuring, which Hester has likened to defusing "the biggest time bomb in history", may now be overshadowed by the regulatory probe into allegations that banks manipulated the London interbank offered rate.RBS made a provision of 125 million pounds to cover costs linked to a computer failure at its consumer bank in June that left most of its 15 million account holders unable to access their accounts for days.Adding provisions for the mis-selling of interest rate swaps and payment-protection insurance, the bank set aside a total of 310 million pounds for redress.RBS has also dismissed four employees for trying to influence the individual responsible for Libor submissions following an internal investigation, Finance Director Bruce Van Saun said.He said it was too early to give an estimate for the potential costs RBS faces for its involvement in the scandal."The Libor situation is on our agenda and is a stark reminder of the damage that individual wrongdoing and inadequate systems and controls can have...