All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
RBS posts FY11 loss of £2bn
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has posted a larger than expected loss for fiscal 2011 of £1.99bn ($3.12bn), up 77% year-on-year following writedowns of its Eurozone debt holdings and provisions against PPI mis-selling. On a pre-tax basis, RBS lost £766m for the 12 months to 31 December 2011, against £399m in fiscal 2010. RBS, 82% owned by the UK government as a result of the £45bn state bail-out in 2008, continues to be hammered by losses at its Northern Ireland-based retail focused Ulster Bank.
UK mobile banking numbers soar by 86% y-o-y
UK mobile banking growth has soared by 86% in the past year according to digital consultancy comScore. In the three month period to end December 2011, over 4.8m UK smartphone users accessed their bank accounts on-the-go, compared to 2.6m in the same quarter a year ago. Amongst the nearly 20% of UK smartphone owners using online banking via their mobile device, a growing number is accessing these services on a daily basis
SBI set to take over State Bank of Mysore
State Bank of India (SBI) is set to take over State Bank of Mysore (SBM) as Indias largest lender ramps up its consolidation strategy. Following on from merging with regional lenders State Bank of Saurashtra in 2008 and State Bank of Indore in 2010, the deal with SBM is expected to prelude mergers with larger lenders such as State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Hyderabad.
SocGen posts strong retail FY11 earnings but group net income down 39%
Socit Gnrale (SocGen), has reported a fiscal 2011 full year net profit of 2.38bn ($3.09bn), down 39.1% from the year ago period (2010: 3.91bn) According to SocGen, Greek sovereign debt losses, write-down of goodwill and restructuring provisions impacted the banks group net income by around $900m.
BNPP posts group FY11 profit down 23%, retail profits rise
Greek writedowns and restructuring costs have contributed to a 22.9% fall in BNP Paribas (BNPP) full year net income to 6.05bn ($7.95bn). The largest bank in the Eurozone by assets said that it has made provisions of 75% of its Greek bond exposure. Total group revenue slipped by 3.4% to 42.38bn; total assets also fell slightly, by 1.7% to 1.97trn.
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Bulbank launches Valentine’s Day promo
UniCredits Bulgarian subsidiary Bulbank has rolled out a Valentines Day promotion tied to its Donna-branded series of products targeted at women.According to Bulbank, it is celebrating the month of love by offering an additional credit card to spouses of Donna cardholders on preferential terms.Bulbank is also remitting 0.3% of cardholders purchases made with Visa-branded Donna credit cards to a number of charities via the website www.save-darina.org
PPI, European losses dent Barclays’ retail profits
Barclays has posted a full year profit before tax of £5.88bn ($9.26bn) for the 12 months to 31 December, down only 3% from the year ago period. Barclays retail banking performance was hammered by losses in Western Europe and over £1bn of provisions relating to redress for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) miss-selling. On an underlying basis, Barclays pre-tax profit dipped by only 2% to £5.59bn. Barclays retail banking performance was hammered by losses in Western Europe and over £1bn of provisions relating to redress for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) miss-selling. Profit before tax at Barclays retail division fell by 25.2% to £1.83bn. Stripping out the provisions for PPI redress and goodwill impairments resulted in a 48% increase in underlying retail profit before tax to £3.3bn.
Akbank FY11 net income falls by 16%
Turkey-based Akbank has posted a net income for the 12 months to 31 December of TRY2.53bn ($1.43bn), down 15.8% from the year ago period. Akbanks result was hit by margin pressure with net interest income falling by 6.3% to TRY4.15bn.
Danske posts 53% fall in FY11
Danske has posted a net profit of DKK1.7bn (230m) for the 12 months to 31 December, down 53% from the same period a year ago. Net interest income fell by 1.3% to DKK23.54bn while net fees were down by 4.6% to DKK8.29bn. Danskes banking unit remained in the red but reduced its full year loss before tax to DKK490m, down 70% from a loss before tax of DKK1.67bn the previous year. Danskes banking losses were attributable to its troubled subsidiaries on the island of Ireland. In Northern Ireland, Danskes Northern Bank unit posted a loss before tax of DKK1.86bn, more than double the loss of DKK833m the previous year.
ING Group posts underlying net profit of ?3.67bn, results less positive at banking unit
ING has posted an underlying net profit of 3.67bn ($4.86) for the 12 months to 31 December, up 15.1% from the year ago period. Results were less positive at INGs banking unit: underlying net profit fell by 20.2% to 3.38bn (2010: 4.24bn). Underlying net profit at ING Direct declined even more sharply, by 34% in fiscal 2011 to 649m. ING Directs troubled UK unit again disappointed: in fiscal 2011, it posted an underlying net loss of 46m, up 28% from the year ago period.