Royal Bank Of Scotland (LON:RBS) TRANSCRIPT EXTRACT
Can you give a summary of the 2010 results?
At a headline level, I think the 2010 results that we've just announced really show that the RBS recovery story is going well. We've returned to the black at a Group level, so we've reported operating profits of £2bn against a large loss last year, and all the measures beneath that are going in the right direction and according to the plans we've set out, the targets we've set out. In fact, in a number of instances ahead.
But what's the underlying story here? Are you reassured by these numbers?
Well, I think that the underlying story has to be seen in three components. The first the core results are showing a much better balance of results. So our Investment Bank, which really carried the results last year, slipped back, still with respect to results. And we had very strong improvements in performance across our Retail and Commercial banking businesses. So piece one is core RBS moving forward and showing the qualities that, over time as we keep building, will make this a great and valuable bank all together again. The second piece for our efforts - crucial to our efforts - is removing the things that weakened us and nearly brought us down, the risk. A lot of that is in our Non-Core division. And there we've made terrific progress. In fact, today we're actually announcing that, not only have we beaten our targets so far, but we as a result are increasing our estimate of the speed with which we can get out of the remaining risk. And so whether it be strong capital, whether it be our funding position that has come right in line with the strong, other banks in the world, or whether it be the risk assets that are being sold down successfully, that's the second area of progress for…
