The Royal Bank of Scotland, in which the British government has a majority stake, has posted a loss of 1.04 billion pounds for the first six months of 2009, bogged down by soaring bad debts.
The entity, propped up by nearly 20 billion pounds of taxpayers money, recorded a loss (after minority interests and preference dividends) of 1.04 billion pounds in the first half of this year, RBS said in a statement on Friday.
In the comparable period, the banking group had a loss of 827 million pounds. Currently, the UK government has about 70 per cent stake in the company.
Reflecting the adverse financial climate, RBS’ impairment charges in the first six months shot up to 7.5 billion pounds and has warned the same would stay higher “for a while”.
About the outlook, RBS Group Chief Executive Stephen Hester said that results may not significantly improve until 2011.
“Overall results may not substantially improve until 2011 and full recovery will take time. Along the way we will still need the government support that gives us time and strength to restructure,” Hester noted.
The beleaguered group is in the process of selling off many assets worldwide and is currently in advanced talks with bidders to dispose off its retail and commercial banking business in countries including India.