Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported attributable profit of £792m for the three months to end March  compared with £259m for the year ago quarter, ahead of analyst forecasts.

Income rose by 2.8% in the first quarter while costs fell by 2.1% y-o-y.

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First quarter highlights included further success in digital channel use. RBS now has 5.75 million regular mobile app users, 5% higher than the prior quarter, representing 69% digital penetration of active current account customers.

Around 55% of RBS’ personal unsecured loans sales are made via digital channels, 39% higher than the year ago quarter.

RBS said that compared with the first quarter of 2017, branch counter transactions were down around 7%, ATM transactions down by 17% with cheque usage also down by 17%.

RBS legacy issues remain

RBS has still to resolve an upcoming fine from US regulators relating to mis-selling and has already made a provision for the fine of £3bn; this may be insufficient as estimates of the likely fine vary from anything between £1bn and £6bn.

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RBS also has further heavy lifting ahead relating to its RBS’ branded network in England and Wales of 280 outlets.

Following the crisis, RBS tried and humiliatingly failed to spin off the branches under a plan that would have resurrected the Williams and Glyn (W&G) brand.

As recently as 2016, RBS planned to list W&G on the London Stock Exchange with a then 307 strong branch network serving about 1.4 million retail customers and more than 200,000 SME customers.

RBS remains silent on the fate of the branches but it is likely that the 280 branches in question will be axed as it is highly unlikely that it will want to integrate the outlets into its NatWest network.