Tag Archives: RBS

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Bottomline Technologies Announces Payments Partnership

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Bottomline Technologies Announces Payments Partnership

RBS and RBS Citizens Select Paymode-X ® to Expand Domestic and International Treasury Management Product Offerings

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Bottomline Technologies (NAS: EPAY) , The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. (RBS) and RBS Citizens, N.A. have formed a new partnership in the payments space, Bottomline announced today. With this agreement, RBS and RBS Citizens select Bottomline’s Paymode-X® settlement network as a technology solution to expand the banks’ treasury management offerings both domestically and around the globe. Paymode-X enables financial institutions to offer comprehensive payables solutions for their corporate customers to convert their paper-based payments to electronic payments quickly and easily.

RBS is a leading bank partner to major corporations, financial institutions, government and public sector clients around the world. RBS Transaction Services delivers international and domestic banking services that clients need to transact efficiently with their customers, suppliers, and counterparties – helping clients make and receive payments and control cash flow. This support allows organizations to accelerate their supply chains, manage operating and regulatory risk, and best utilize their working capital.

RBS Citizens, N.A. is a subsidiary of RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $128-billion commercial bank holding company. As part of RBS Citizens Financial Group in the U.S., the RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions organization provides transaction banking services including cash management, commercial card, and trade finance services to most major industry segments as well as professional services firms to meet their corporate treasury needs.

Paymode-X is a settlement network with more than 200,000 global members exchanging electronic payments, remittance advices and invoices. With Paymode-X, payers can accelerate the conversion of paper to electronic payables and optimize working capital. Vendors enjoy faster access to cash and a streamlined receivables process.

“We are delighted to be a solution partner to RBS and RBS Citizens,” said Rob Eberle, Bottomline’s President and CEO. “We believe that Paymode-X is the future of business payments and that strategic partnerships such as this one will help us continue to revolutionize and lead the payables market.”

About Bottomline Technologies
Bottomline Technologies provides cloud-based payment, invoice and banking solutions to corporations, financial institutions and banks around the world. The company’s solutions are used to streamline, automate and manage processes involving payments, invoicing, global cash management, supply chain finance and transactional documents. Organizations trust Bottomline to meet their needs for cost reduction, competitive differentiation and optimization of working capital. Headquartered in the United States, Bottomline also …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CBRE Group, Inc. Announces Pricing of $800 Million of 5.00% Senior Unsecured Notes Due 2023

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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CBRE Group, Inc. Announces Pricing of $800 Million of 5.00% Senior Unsecured Notes Due 2023

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CBRE Group, Inc. (NYS: CBG) today announced the pricing of its offering of $800 million in aggregate principal amount of 5.00% senior notes due 2023 (the “Notes”). The Notes will have an interest rate of 5.00% per annum and are being issued at a price equal to 100% of their face value. The Notes will be issued by the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, CBRE Services, Inc., and guaranteed by the Company and the subsidiaries that guarantee its senior secured credit facility, on a full and unconditional basis.

The Company estimates that the net proceeds from the offering will be approximately $785.2 million, after deducting the underwriters’ discounts and estimated offering expenses. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from such offering of the Notes to repay a portion of its outstanding indebtedness under its senior secured credit facilities.

BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo Securities, HSBC, Scotiabank, Barclays Capital and RBS are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering of the Notes.

The Notes are being offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement that the Company previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“). The offering of the Notes will be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus, which may be obtained for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC‘s website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies may be obtained from: BofA Merrill Lynch, 222 Broadway, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10038, Attention: Prospectus Department, or email: dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the Notes, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the offering of the Notes and the anticipated use of proceeds therefrom. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in CBRE Group, Inc.’s filings with the SEC. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Shares With Potential for a Fast 20% Rise

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By David O’Hara, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Even in a year when the FTSE 100 has already advanced 9.2%, some blue-chip shares have room to move higher still.

Here are three shares that could deliver big returns in the short term.

1) BP
If BP shares were to rise 20% from here, the company’s share price would be 540p. Since the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the highest that the shares have traded is 500p.

BP shares currently trade on a 2013 P/E of just 8.1 times forecasts. The company is expected to pay dividends that add up to a 5.4% yield for this year.

BP shares are currently being held back by worries over an ongoing court case relating to the Gulf of Mexico disaster. If the result is anything other than a huge fine for BP, expect the shares to rise immediately.

BP‘s new deal with Rosneft could also transform investor perceptions.

2) Royal Bank of Scotland
In January this year, shares in Royal Bank of Scotland were changing hands for 370p. That’s 18% ahead of where we are today.

Sentiment toward the banks has been battered by Payment Protection Insurance miselling, LIBOR fixing, and interest rate swap miselling. Due to a collection of (hopefully) one-offs and technical accounting reasons, RBS was forced to report a huge loss for 2012.

This has shrouded the bank’s recovery. By a number of measures, RBS is fast-improving. As so few commentators are mentioning the good news from RBS, this feels like a point from which sentiment can only improve.

3) Kazakhmys
Kazakhmys is one of the most volatile shares in the FTSE 100. It always has been.

So far in 2013, Kazakhmys shares are down 28.2%. In the last year, the shares are off by almost 40%.

Kazakhmys is a copper miner. As such, its share price is a geared play on the price of the raw material and the global economy. When the price of copper reached a peak back in October, Kazakhmys shares were 40% higher, at 770p.

If copper can turn higher, Kazakhmys shares will soar.

The shares trade at just 7.4 times expected earnings for 2013, with a forecast yield of 1.8%.

Selecting shares that could rise significantly due to a small change in sentiment is one of the quickest ways of boosting investment returns that I know. For more strategies that could help you accelerate your wealth-building, we have prepared a special free report, “10 Steps To Making A Million In The Market.” This publication is 100% free, and will be delivered to your inbox immediately. Just click here to get your copy today.


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The article 3 Shares With Potential for a Fast 20% Rise originally appeared on Fool.com.


David O’Hara owns shares in Royal Bank of Scotland but none of the other companies mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Bank of England: action needed over RBS losses

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The Bank of England‘s governor warned Wednesday that Britain’s government should take decisive action over losses at the Royal Bank of Scotland sooner rather than later to prevent it from being a drag on the economy.

Mervyn King told a parliamentary committee on banking that the government needed to finish within a year a radical restructure of RBS, which is more than 80 percent owned by the British taxpayer after getting a 45 billion-pound ($71 billion) bailout in 2008.

He said it was “not beyond the wit of man” to split RBS into “good” and “bad” banks. That would allow the government to sell off the healthy part, which would also be free to lend more to customers, helping the economy.

But to do that, the government will have to accept it will likely not recover all the money it spent on rescuing RBS.

“We should face up to it — it’s worth less than we thought and we should accept that and get back to finding a way to create a new RBS that could be a major lender to the U.K. economy,” King said.

Treasury chief George Osborne recently told the committee he believes there are “very considerable obstacles” to splitting RBS, and that he favored shrinking the bank’s balance sheet while it focuses on Britain’s economy.

“Time has passed and aside from reducing the balance sheet, nothing has been achieved — we haven’t managed to get it into the private sector,” King said. “It would be much better to accept that it should have been a temporary period only, and the longer this goes on, the more difficult it becomes.”

King’s comments come only a week after RBS‘ chief executive, Stephen Hester, stressed the bank has made progress in the restructuring process — even as he acknowledged it would take time to rebuild public trust dented by what he described as a “chastening year.”

The bank reported a full-year loss of 5.97 billion pounds ($9 billion), worse than the shortfall of 2 billion pounds in 2011.

Hester stressed that the restructuring was entering the final phase, and that RBS would return to private ownership in the next few years. RBS has said it is making progress in repaying emergency liquidity loans from the government …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Banks' Real Results

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By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Are you perplexed by the banks’ results? Suspicious of big improvements in “adjusted,” “underlying,” and “managed” performance when tucked away in the small print are large statutory losses? Join the club.

So last quarter, I decided to rigorously categorize the banks’ adjustments between underlying and statutory profit. I identified one-off exceptional items, costs of litigation over PPI and LIBOR, etc., and fair value adjustments that arise from accounting technicalities.

If you’re interested, you can read more about the methodology here, and see the detailed analysis in this table:

 

Lloyds

RBS

Barclays
  2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011
Underlying Profit 2,607 638 3,462 1,824 7,048 5,590
Exceptional Items 840 (435) (1,787) (4,078) 227 (1,419)
Litigation (4,225) (3,375) (2,191) (850) (2,450) (1,000)
Fair Value Adjustments 208 (370) (4,649) 1,914 (4,579) 2,708
Statutory Profit (570) (3,542) (5,165) (1,190) 246 5,879

The bottom line
But you can skip to this table that summarizes the results:

 

Lloyds

RBS

Barclays
  2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011
Underlying Profit 2,607 638 3,462 1,824 7,048 5,590
Statutory Profit Before Fair Value Adjustments (778) (3,172) (516) (3,104) 4,825 3,171

The underlying profit shows the results as the banks would like you to see them, and may be a better indicator of future performance. The bottom line is what actually happened, adjusted to eliminate misleading accounting technicalities.

Both measures show significant improvement over last year. On the warts-and-all measure, Lloyds  and RBS  have made big reductions in losses, while Barclays  enjoyed a muscular 52% rise in profits.

Lloyds
Lloyds’ management sounded bullish. The bank is ahead of its transformation plan, reducing costs by 5%, two years ahead of target, and selling over 40 billion pounds of distressed assets in 2012 against a plan of 25 billion pounds.

With a concentration on U.K. retail and commercial banking, Lloyds has the lowest risk business model of the three banks, but one wholly dependent on the U.K. economy. That’s not a great short-term bet, but the long-term trajectory is upwards.

With the heavy lifting on its transformation nearly complete and PPI provisioning at an end, Lloyds shares are trading at 95% of tangible net asset value (TNAV). The prospect of a resumed dividend will give them their next big push.

RBS
RBS‘s results announcement was also confident, predicting 2013 to be the last big year of restructuring. In 2012, it pulled off the flotation of Direct Line and shed over 10% of risk assets. As with Lloyds, the EU-mandated sale of branches stalled.

RBS is harassed by politicians with agendas, but that could yet turn to its advantage, with the Coalition eager for demonstrable progress before the next election in 2015. CEO Stephen Hester is making positive noises about privatization.

A partial flotation of the U.S. Citizen’s Bank could prove a valuation boost this year. Trading at 0.7 times TNAV, RBS has more headroom for rerating.

Barclays
Barclays’ results were accompanied by details of its new strategy, and greeted by a near-10% jump in the shares.

The bank will focus on the U.K., U.S., and Africa, and is cutting jobs in investment banking, Europe, and Asia. The sole closure is that of the toxic tax-structuring unit. It will invest in high-return businesses such as U.K. mortgages, its Wealth business, and Barclaycard — an often-overlooked gem.

It’s also committed to accelerate its dividend from next year, targeting a 30% payout. Trading at 0.8 times tangible NAV, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 FTSE 100 Shares Trading on Big Discounts

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By G. A. Chester, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — If someone offered you the opportunity to buy 1-pound coins for, say, 80 pence, you’d be mad not to accept, wouldn’t you?

Yet, there are companies around that are priced such that you’re paying less than 1 pound for every 1 pound of their assets. OK, so it’s not quite the same as 1-pound coins for 80 pence, but you get the idea: Stocks trading at a discount to the value of their assets could be bargains.

FTSE 100 companies Royal Bank of Scotland Group  , Hammerson , and Kazakhmys  are all trading at discounts to their tangible net asset values (TNAV).

Kazakhmys
Kazakhstan copper miner Kazakhmys is on the biggest discount of the three companies. At the last balance sheet date — which is as long ago as the half-year ended June 30, 2012 — the TNAV per share was around 1,100 pence (using current exchange rates). At the time of writing, the shares are trading at 559 pence — or a discount of almost 50%.

However, Kazakhmys has a 26% stake in diversified natural resources group Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), itself a FTSE company. At the half-year stage, Kazakhmys said the carrying value of its investment in ENRC was around 1.6 billion pounds more (using current exchange rates) than its share of ENRC‘s market value. Adjusting for that, the discount comes down to around 30%.

Kazakhmys said in a trading update last week that it was reviewing the carrying value of the holding in ENRC and will report any impairment in full-year results on March 26. I believe Kazakhmys’ shares at 559 pence will still be at a significant discount to TNAV whatever the outcome of the review.

Hammerson
Hammerson, a U.K. real estate investment trust, which also owns properties in France, had a transformational year in 2012. This 3.7 billion pound company executed over 1 billion pounds of investment activity during the year as it repositioned itself as a pure retail-focused company.

Hammerson released its annual results just a few days ago, so we have a TNAV number that’s about as fresh as it can be. At the balance sheet date of Dec. 31, TNAV per share was 542 pence. As I write, the shares are trading at 505 pence, giving a discount of 7%.

Hammerson delivered a confident outlook statement in its results, and said it was “targeting strong growth in earnings and dividends over the three-year period to 2015.”

Royal Bank of Scotland
Bailed-out bank RBS is four years into its recovery plan, and has targeted 2013 as its last big year of restructuring.

In its annual results released last week, the group reported TNAV per share of 446 pence at the balance sheet date of Dec. 31. At the time of writing, the shares are trading at 306 pence — or a discount of 31%.

The end of year TNAV was down 11% on the 501 pence of a year earlier. The current discount still looks attractive, even allowing for a further decline in the value …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why I Am Still Bullish on Royal Bank of Scotland

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By David O’Hara, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland   had a great 2012. So far in 2013, they are down 5.4%. That’s pretty disappointing when you consider the fact that the FTSE 100 is up 8.2% in 2013. I welcomed RBS‘s falls as an opportunity to top up. Here are the three reasons why I did.

1. Sentiment
RBS is probably the most scrutinized company in the FTSE 100. Last week, as the company reported its 2012 results, the shares fell 9%. The results were met by the usual swathe of whining over the cost of government support to the bank and the amount that it pays its staff.

We all remember the days when RBS‘s long-term future was in jeopardy. The accounting loss reported by RBS seems to have scared some investors into selling, perhaps fearful of possible real cash losses. I took advantage of the tsunami of pessimism to buy more shares at 321 pence.

2. Profit potential
RBS‘s recent results show just how profitable the bank would be if they can cut out the bad stuff. Like Payment Protection Insurance costs (1.1 billion pounds in 2012), interest rate hedging products compensation (700 million pounds), and regulatory fines (300 million pounds). The bank also lost 5.3 billion pounds on asset impairments.

The good news is that, unless there is more bad news in the pipeline, these fines are unlikely to repeat in 2012. Even impairments are falling sharply: This figure is down from 7.4 billion pounds for 2011.

If RBS can demonstrate profitability, the market will reappraise the shares. 2013 could be the year that RBS finally manages to convince investors that it is back to profitable banking. The next two trading statements will be crucial.

3. Asset backing
RBS‘s final results revealed that the bank has net tangible assets of 455 pence per share. That’s 47.8% ahead of today’s share price.

I believe that profitable companies should never trade at a discount to their book value. Furthermore, a profitable firm will be growing its book value. Consensus estimates are for RBS to report 28.1 pence of earnings per share for 2013, to be followed by 36.5 pence for 2013.

A simple analysis suggests that RBS could end 2014 with 500 pence of assets per share. If this does indeed come to pass, RBS bears will be converted to bulls one by one along the way. I expect that RBS shares will end 2013 trading over 400 pence.

Buying shares in an out-of-favor company like RBS can yield big gains if sentiment turns. Contrarian plays are just one way that you could use the stock market to boost your investment returns. For more wealth-building ideas, check out the free Motley Fool report, “10 Steps to Making a Million in the Market.” This report is completely free and will be delivered to your inbox immediately. Just click here to get the report today.

The article Why I Am Still Bullish on Royal Bank …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Should I Buy Royal Bank of Scotland or Lloyds Banking Group?

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By Roland Head, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland Group   and Lloyds Banking Group   were both forced into humiliating tax-payer funded bailouts during the financial crisis — and last week, both banks reported hefty losses for 2012, suggesting that they haven’t yet managed to put their problems behind them.

I believe that both banks will eventually recover and that it’s only a question of time until the government sells its shareholdings back into the private sector.

Today, I’m going to look at both banks to see which offers the greater potential for new investors.

RBS vs. Lloyds
I’m going to start with a look at a few key statistics that can be used to provide a quick comparison of these two companies, based on their 2012 results:

  RBS Lloyds
Price to tangible book value 0.69 0.94
Core Tier 1 ratio 10.3% 12%
Group net interest margin 1.93% 1.93%
Group loan to deposit ratio 100% 121%

RBS remains — in theory at least — a strong value play, trading at around 69% of its tangible asset value, whereas Lloyds’ share price has pretty much caught up with its book value, leaving very little upside in this area.

However, both banks are continuing to sell off non-core assets, and RBS especially is likely to do more in this area over the next year, meaning the underlying book value of the business could shrink further.

Looking at the other statistics, Lloyds has moved ahead of RBS with a substantially higher core tier 1 ratio and a stronger group loan to deposit ratio, which gives it the ability to extend its lending when attractive opportunities arise, without compromising the security of its balance sheet.

What’s next?
Are the trends we identified above about to change, or should we expect more of the same?

Analysts’ forecasts are notoriously unreliable, but FTSE 100 companies generally get the benefit of the most comprehensive analysis, and tend to deliver fewer surprises than smaller companies.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some forward-looking numbers for RBS and Lloyds. These apply to the companies’ 2013 financial years:

  RBS Lloyds
Forecast P/E ratio 12.8 11.3
Forecast dividend yield 0.4% 0.6%
Forecast earnings per share 24p 4.5p

These figures, which are based on the companies’ guidance figures and analysts’ consensus forecasts, suggest that both banks are expected to return to profit in 2013, ending the run of impairments and exceptional charges that drove both of them into the red in 2012.

Analysts are also hoping that dividend payments will begin — although even if it is financially prudent, this will be a politically sensitive subject, and I wouldn’t be surprised if dividends get postponed until 2014.

Which share should I buy?
For me, the main point in buying RBS or Lloyds is because you want to profit from the recovery potential of the shares. If you want to invest in a healthy, dividend-paying bank, then you are more likely to buy Barclays, HSBC, or Standard Chartered instead.

On this basis, I would buy RBS, because its less advanced recovery …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Earnings Drop 19% at HSBC Holdings

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By Nate Weisshaar, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — HSBC   reported a 19% drop in earnings per share in 2012, as fines and struggling European operations marred a strong year in the bank’s Asian operations. Despite these issues, the bank raised its dividend 10% for the year and plans to raise the first three dividends in 2013 11%.

As with most banks, it takes a little digging to find out what is going on with the business because they report a few different measures of profitability. Add in HSBC‘s global operations, and the story easily gets muddled.

In general, however, Hong Kong and the rest of Asia are doing rather well for the bank, while the U.S. and Europe are providing headaches — and not just because the bank has run afoul of regulators surprisingly frequently of late. Despite these troubles, HSBC appears to be working its way through the troubled loans on its books in these two regions as provisions for bad loans were down 2.8 billion pounds, or almost 30%.

Like most European banks HSBC is in a rebuilding mode, but it seems to be making slightly better progress than its London-listed peers. It has shed 43 businesses in the past two years, generating 2.4 billion pounds in annual savings, and is investing heavily in its profitable Asian operations — in fact, taking advantage, as many of the banks on the Continent pull back from the region to take care of domestic issues.

Importantly, HSBC appears to have a strong capital base ready to meet the stringent requirement increases expected go into force in coming years. Perhaps more importantly to investors is the fact that HSBC pays a dividend, which provides something close to the market average yield — something its London-listed competitors cannot say.

A superior yield and geographic diversification are two reasons HSBC is trading at a premium to its book value — roughly 1.2 times book value in fact — while the likes of Barclays, Lloyds, and RBS all trade at discounts. However, this is still well below the multiples it traded at before the global financial crisis.

Investors need to ask themselves if they think HSBC can clean up its act in its developed markets and continue its success in emerging markets. If so, the shares could be attractive at today’s prices.

If you already own HSBC or are looking for a share that can provide a market beating yield you will want to read this special free report from The Motley Fool.

The report describes an opportunity that offers a super 5.6% income, whose shares might be worth 850p versus around 730 pence now — and has just been declared “The Motley Fool’s Top Dividend Stock for 2013.” Just click here to discover more.

The article Earnings Drop 19% at HSBC Holdings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Nate does not own any shares discussed above.
 The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Lloyds Banking Group Losses Lopped In Half

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By Nate Weisshaar, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Lloyds Banking Group   appeared quite pleased with its 1.3 billion-pound loss for the year — that’s a loss of 2 pence per share compared to last year’s 4 pence loss — as the bank made meaningful progress toward its strategic goals set out in the summer of 2011.

If you brush away the additional 3.6 billion pounds set aside to address seemingly ever-rising PPI claims and 1.2 billion pounds in supposedly one-time restructuring costs, then you can see some of the reasons for management’s satisfaction.

Statutory, Management, Core, or Non-Core?
The most exciting bit about reading bank financial releases these days (and believe me, it is exciting) is trying to decide which profit line to actually look at. Lloyds provides us with at least four.

Statutory profit is what they are required to report according to accounting rules; Management profit is what management looks at because it ignores things like PPI provisions, which arise because of a lack of management; Core profits arise from nebulously defined core banking operations; and Non-Core profits come from the business that the bank wishes it had never entered and now wants to be rid of.

£ millions 2012 2011
Statutory Profit (1,343) (2,714)
Management Profit 4,827 2,685
Core Management Profit 8,142 6,349
Non-Core Management Profit (3,315) (3,664)

If we look at the various permutations of Management profit, it looks like Lloyds is making progress. However, this number includes a significant amount of money (3.2 billion pounds at the Group level) made on selling government bonds, which is not regularly repeatable so I think should be ignored.

What lies beneath
For that we turn to Underlying profits, where we see Lloyds’s core operations turned in flat profits at 6.2 billion pounds despite cost cuts of nearly 500 million pounds and a reduction in bad loan provisions of nearly 1 billion pounds. Income was down 1.5 billion pounds mainly as a result of fewer assets earning returns and lower returns on those assets — the core banking interest margin was down from 2.42% to 2.32%.

Management expects its core lending to increase next year, but we’ll have to see if they can do that and collect higher rates.

However, the bank’s capital ratios improved — Tier 1 was up to 12% from 10.8% last year — and are well ahead of the new regulatory minimums. Additionally, the bank’s reliance on short-term borrowing has reduced dramatically which improves the stability of its balance sheet.

Judging a book
Lloyds’s net asset value, or book value, is currently about 63 pence per share so the shares are trading at 84% of book value. This is a significant discount to historical levels, but well above its closest peer RBS, which recently reported a significant increase in losses and currently trades around half of book.

It looks like Lloyds is further along in its rehabilitation than RBS so this premium is probably justified, but investors still need to ask themselves where they see Lloyds going in the future. With rising capital requirements and authorities doing their best to increase …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

RBS moves closer to UK government stake sale

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People walk past a Royal Bank of Scotland office in London

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland has reported its strongest underlying profit since the financial crisis, potentially paving the way for Britain to sell its 82 percent stake if some big hurdles are overcome. The bank had to be rescued in a 45.5 billion pound ($68.9 billion) state bailout during 2008 but the government has begun looking at ways to sell off its holding as RBS starts to return to financial health. “The light at the end of the tunnel is coming closer,” Chief Executive Stephen Hester said on Thursday. …

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Yahoo Business

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

RBS plans IPO for U.S. arm Citizens in next two years

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People walk past a Royal Bank of Scotland office in London

LONDON (Reuters) – British state-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland is set to signal this week that it plans a partial sale of its U.S. bank Citizens this year or next, a source close to the matter said. RBS will say at its annual results on Thursday that its preferred option for Citizens is an initial public offering (IPO) in New York to sell about 20-25 percent of the bank, the source said. …

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Yahoo Business

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

RBS seen planning Citizens Financial IPO

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A man walks past a Royal Bank of Scotland branch reflected in a puddle in central London

(Reuters) – The Royal Bank of Scotland will unveil plans next week to float a portion of its stake in U.S. retail bank Citizens Financial Group Inc, the Telegraph newspaper reported late on Friday. A full sale of Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens could raise more than 8 million pounds ($12.21 million) for Britain's largest state-backed lender, which has been under pressure from regulators to strengthen its balance sheet. …

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Yahoo Business

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

EU widens lending benchmark investigation to Swiss franc

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European Union Competition Commissioner Almunia holds a news conference on the proposed merger between United Parcel Service Inc and TNT Express in Brussels

PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union's antitrust regulator has widened its investigation of suspected unfair fixing of lending benchmarks such as Euribor and Libor to interest rate products for the Swiss franc. Following a recent fine for RBS by U.S. authorities, Joaquin Almunia said the European Commission's enquiries were focused on a number of cases of suspected price manipulation. “We suspect the existence of cartels between certain actors in the market for derivative products – banks, but also brokers,” he said. …

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Yahoo Business

Articles of Interest

RBS to Pay $612M in Latest Libor Fines

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By Matt Cantor Royal Bank of Scotland is the latest bank to owe big following the Libor rate-fixing scandal . The British institution has been fined a total of $612 million to US and British regulators: some $325 million to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $150 million to the Justice Department, and the… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

News, Politics, Government

Fines set to be levied against RBS in rate scandal

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Britain’s business secretary says bankers who manipulated a key interest rate benchmark should be required to pay penalties levied by U.S. and UK regulators.

Vince Cable‘s remarks to the BBC came as the Royal Bank of Scotland braced for fines for its role in the manipulation of LIBOR, a key interest rate which affects trillions of dollars’ worth of loans and other financial instruments.

Taxpayers own 81 percent of RBS after bailing it out at the start of the economic crisis. The notion that the taxpayer should bear the cost for the bad behavior of errant bankers is certain to touch off outrage.

Cable made clear Wednesday that the fines should be paid from staff bonuses, but acknowledged he had no power to force them to act.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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UK watchdog investigates banks for mis-selling

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The Financial Services Authority said Thursday it is reviewing practices of the U.K.’s big retail banks after finding serious problems with the sale of interest rate hedging products to small businesses.

The authority said Thursday the review will include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS banks. The authority said in a statement that the banks have agreed to review sales and provide “redress” to customers in a process overseen by independent reviewers.

The FSA had announced in June 2012 that there were significant failings in the sale of IRHPs, which were marketed as a way for businesses to protect themselves from rate increases.

The authority’s new statement says that in a review more than 90 percent of the 173 cases it studied turned up at least one regulatory violation.

“Where redress is due, businesses will be put back into the position they should have been without the mis-sale,” said Martin Wheatley, CEO-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority.

UK banks have so far set aside 12.3 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) to compensate customers who bought payment protection insurance which they didn’t need.

The Financial Services Authority also said that IRHP sales by Allied Irish Bank (UK), Bank of Ireland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, Co-Operative Bank and Santander UK are being scrutinized. It said those banks are likely to launch their own reviews in the next two weeks.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News