The Personal & Business Banking (PBB) segment of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which contains UK PBB and Ulster Bank, has posted operating profit of £881m for the third quarter of 2014, compared with £75 million in the year ago quarter.
To the total, UK PBB and Ulster Bank contributed £499m and £382m respectively. In the year ago period, UK PBB contributed £214m, while Ulster Bank posted operating loss of £139m.
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For the quarter ended 30 September 2014, the bank’s PBB segment posted total income of £1.75bn, versus £1.7bn in the corresponding quarter of 2013.
UK PBB’s net impairment losses during the rose by £19m primarily reflecting lower latent releases. While its gross new mortgage lending totalled £5.3bn. Net mortgage growth was £0.8bn with strong retention in fixed rate roll-offs and higher repayments.
Ulster Bank’s proactive re-pricing of deposits has contributed to the improvement in net interest margin since third quarter of 2013.
In both the second quarter of 2014 and third quarter of 2014, Ulster Bank’s net interest margin benefited from the recognition of interest income on non-performing assets, RBS said in a statement.
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By GlobalDataThe statement added that Ulster Bank’s management continues to focus on implementing cost saving initiatives but expenses during 2014 have been adversely impacted by a number of additional regulatory charges and levies.
However, RBS also confirmed that it will retain Ulster Bank following completion of strategic review.
"Ulster Bank remains a core part of RBS, offering a good strategic fit with our focused retail and commercial banking strategy," the firm said.
Overall, RBS group posted pre-tax profit of £1.27bn in the third quarter, versus loss of £634m in the previous year.
The bank also set aside £400m, related to potential costs following investigations into the foreign exchange market.
