Tag Archives: Royal Bank

Britain charges two brokers over Libor rate scandal

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said Monday that two former brokers have been charged with conspiring to manipulate the Libor interbank lending rate.

“Terry Farr and James Gilmour, former brokers at RP Martin Holdings Limited, have today been charged with offences of conspiracy to defraud in connection with the investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the manipulation of Libor,” the SFO said in a statement.

The men will appear in court at a later date, it said, adding that its probe into Libor manipulation would continue.

Gilmour, 48, was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud. Farr, 41, was charged with two counts of the same offence.

The development comes after the SFO filed similar charges against former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes last month.

All three men were arrested in Britain last December as part of the investigation.

Libor is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own interbank rates. However, the system has been found to be open to abuse, with some traders lying about borrowing costs to boost trading positions or make their bank seem more secure.

The Libor scandal erupted last year when British bank Barclays was fined ??290 million ($470 million, 363 million euros) by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Swiss lender UBS have also received heavy fines over alleged rigging of Libor. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent.

Libor or the London Interbank Offered Rate is the umbrella term for benchmark rates that underpin the terms of 500 trillion US dollars (??320 trillion) of contracts from mortgages to the cost of corporate lending.

Last week meanwhile, Britain announced that NYSE Euronext, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, would take over management of Libor early next year.

That followed a review which recommended that industry body the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) should be stripped of its responsibility for setting Libor after widespread rate-rigging was found to have taken place.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

SEC Heads to Court Against Ex-Goldman Sachs Bond Trader

By Reuters

Fabrice Tourre goldman sachs trader testimony congress

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFomer Goldman Sachs bond-trader Fabrice Tourre, shown here in a 2010 photo, faces civil charges that he misled investors in a trial that starts Monday.

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission heads to trial Monday against a former Goldman Sachs bond trader in a case it says highlights what went wrong on Wall Street in the financial crisis.

Jury selection begins in federal court in New York in the civil fraud case against Fabrice Tourre, 34, who the SEC says misled investors in an ill-fated mortgage-securities investment called Abacus 2007-AC1.

It is the highest-profile trial to date stemming from the SEC’s investigation of the events leading up to the 2008 crisis and, legal experts say, presents a chance for the SEC to hold an individual responsible at trial.

The SEC’s case, as summed up by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest last month, is that Tourre “handed Little Red Riding Hood an invitation to grandmother’s house while concealing the fact that it was written by the Big Bad Wolf.”

According to the SEC, the wolf in question is John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire whose bet against the subprime mortgage market was chronicled in “The Greatest Trade Ever” by Gregory Zuckerman.

In 2006, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co., turned to Goldman Sachs Group (GS) for help betting against subprime mortgages, the SEC said.

They began discussing Abacus, which would give Paulson a role in picking the underlying portfolio of mortgage securities, the SEC said. Paulson could then short, or bet against, it through an insurance product called a credit default swap.

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At the time, Tourre, a French national, was 28 years old and working at Goldman Sachs in New York. He became the bank’s principal employee working on what became Abacus, known in the financial industry as a synthetic collateralized debt obligation.

The SEC said Abacus’s marketing materials failed to disclose Paulson’s role in picking the underlying assets, instead saying that a subsidiary of ACA Capital Holdings selected them.

Tourre’s goal, the SEC contends, was to deceive investors into buying the liabilities of Abacus.

In a much-cited email sent on Jan. 23, 2007, to his girlfriend at the time, Tourre said of the financial markets: the “whole building is about to collapse anytime now.”

“Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab … standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!”

When the underlying mortgage securities turned sour, investors including IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG and ABN AMRO Bank NV, now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), lost over $1 billion, the SEC said.

Paulson, meanwhile, netted …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

GOWEX Strengthens Its Board Advisors and Directors by Engaging World Experts in Telecommunications

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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     GOWEX Strengthens Its Board Advisors and Directors by Engaging World Experts in Telecommunications

• Paul Ryb, former Managing Director of Global Banking & Markets at Royal Bank of Scotland and specialized in Telecom Equity analysis for over 20 years, will join the company as an Advisory Director

• Carlos Gomez and Alfonso García-Villaraco will create a “more social and international GOWEX” with a clear commitment to user’s environments and Mobile ecosystems

MADRID–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Regulatory News :

GOWEX (Paris:ALGOW) (OTCQX:LGWXY) (GOW-MAB, ALGOW-NYSE Alternext, LGWXY- OTCQX), a leader in creating Smart Wi-Fi Cities (Wireless Smart Cities ®) and Intelligent Wi-Fi Transport, announces the expansion of its advisor and directors network to assist the Company’s growth plan, especially in the international area.

Paul Ryb, ex senior Telecom Industry Equity Specialist at Royal Bank of Scotland, will help GOWEX to achieve its Strategic Growth Plan, that is to reach 300 world capitals within the next 3 years and will join GOWEX Advisors Board.

Meanwhile, Alfonso García-Villaraco and Carlos Gómez will develop strategic services oriented to mobile’s environment and apps’ ecosystem, Public Administration, transport, end users, private entities… and all stakeholders in a city, with the aim to integrate them within Wireless Smart Cities®. From a disruptive technology vision, this process development will set a pattern and an innovative approach to telecommunications in our cities.

Paul Ryb

After more than 20 years working in investment banking in the City and at a senior level within the Telecoms Sector, Paul’s knowledge of the sector will bring unparalleled experience to GOWEX. Paul most recently served as a Managing Director within the Global Banking & Markets Division at RBS Group (Royal Bank of Scotland).

Alfonso García-Villaraco

One of the most important and fastest growing areas in GOWEX is the mobile environment and ecosystem of apps, whose manager is Alfonso García-Villaraco, GOWEX Mobile CEO. With over 20 years experience in

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/17/gowex-strengthens-its-board-advisors-and-directors/

Banks Will Pay for Misleading Customers

By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

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Ongoing litigation in the U.K. means that banks will likely be on the hook for mis-selling products to small business and individuals. According to the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), the banks may have mis-sold up to 90% of the products under review. Claims have been coming in for over a year, and banks are just now undertaking a review of their sales, to determine which customers need to be compensated.

The banks facing the first wave of investigation are Barclays , Royal Bank of Scotland , HSBC , and Lloyds Banking Group . These companies are going to pay out something, as they’ve already admitted that rules were broken. The question remains — how much will it cost?

Swaps explained
The charges related to rate swaps that the banks tacked on to variable rate loans in the middle of the last decade. Customers who wanted — or were urged — to hedge against interest rates going up could agree to a “cap” and “floor” — together forming a “collar” — on the rates. If interest rates rose above a certain amount, the cap rate would come into effect, with a customer paying only that rate, not the higher, actual rate.

If rates fell below the floor, then customers would pay the floor rate plus the difference between the floor and the actual rate. Clearly, the banks were selling the collars under the pretense that rates would be rising, as they did until 2008 — when they suddenly fell.

Mis-selling to consumers
Once rates started to plummet, customers began to see their costs rise. Ironically, the very thing causing them to rise was a move designed to help borrowers. As the rates collapsed, customers approach their banks to cancel their coverage, only to discover that there was an often massive fee associated with cancellation. 

The key to the litigation is not the product itself, which is relatively straightforward — it’s the selling of the product. Claimants believe that they were not given a choice when purchasing a collar, not fully made aware of the fees to cancel the product, or not given enough explanation to fully understand the risks involved.

Now the FSA believes that over 40,000 of these products were sold in the last decade. While many of these will have expired, or be of such low value that banks won’t be harmed, many are likely to result in repayments. As an example, Barclays announced that it has set aside $1.3 billion to repay harmed customers. 

While the final tally won’t be known for some time, it’s a sure bet that this is one more hurdle for the banks to overcome before they can return to respectability — investors beware.

Many investors are scared about investing in big banking stocks after the crash, but the sector has one notable standout. In a sea of mismanaged and dangerous peers, it rises above as “The Only Big Bank Built to Last.” You can

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/banks-will-pay-for-misleading-customers/

ONS Figures Calm Fears of Triple-Dip Recession

By Sam Robson, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that February saw industrial production rise 1% against January 2013, while manufacturing output — one of the components of the index of production — almost doubled its February forecast, up 0.8% compared to the previous month’s fall of 1.9%.

This has led several economists to say the news eases fears of a triple-dip recession — feasibly a third in five years — with BNP Paribas’ David Tinsley commenting: “These apocalyptic stories of a Q1 negative (GDP) print and a triple dip are still certainly not guaranteed. If we get some growth in the service sector, we will be OK.” Further, Royal Bank of Scotland‘s Ross Walker said, “It’s hardly a dramatic recovery but it does look to be avoiding a symbolic triple dip recession.”

Energy production also comprises part of the industrial-production figure, and the colder-than-average weather that the U.K. has been seeing — including snowfall in spring — has significantly contributed to the upturn, which had previously been estimated at a 0.3% increase.

Companies that have benefited include British Gas owner Centrica , which reached an annual high last week and gained 1% in today’s trading to reach 374 pence. Increased gas usage, higher prices, and more investment in the sector have led to a strong start to the year for the likes of Centrica and BG Group . The latter also profited from today’s news, gaining a more modest 0.3%.

Indeed, with the government‘s proposed “Gas Generation Strategy,” the energy sector looks to have a healthy outlook. Interestingly, though, City super investor Neil Woodford recently sold all of Invesco Perpetual High Income fund’s holding in BG Group, yet he retains a significant holding in Centrica…

If you had invested 10,000 pounds in Woodford‘s High Income fund 10 years ago with payments reinvested, you’d have 30,000 pounds today to show for it. To help you learn from this top stock-picker, The Motley Fool has prepared a newly updated report on some of Woodford’s biggest investments. “8 Shares Held By Britain’s Super Investor” is totally free — to get your copy today, click here.

The article ONS Figures Calm Fears of Triple-Dip Recession originally appeared on Fool.com.


Sam Robson has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Is This Your Last Chance to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland?

By David O’Hara, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — In one month’s time, Royal Bank of Scotland Group   will announce its results for the first three months of 2013. I expect that this announcement will be an important milestone in the bank’s turnaround.

RBS shares have take a battering in the last month, falling 13%. After a great 2012, they are down a total of 16% so far this year.

RBS shares have suffered in the aftermath of the crisis in Cyprus. This was followed by the banking regulator announcing that it wants the sector to raise more capital by the end of the year. Bearish sentiments increased further this week as it was announced that investors would be suing the bank regarding a fundraising that it underwent in 2008.

Back in February, shares in RBS changed hands for more than 350 pence. I believe that a series of events is about to play out that could see RBS shares return to that level in May.

On 3 May, RBS will announce its Q1 results. I believe this could inspire new confidence in the bank and its ability to generate profits.

In 2012, RBS reported a 5.6 billion-pound loss from ongoing operations. This was a result of 5.3 billion pounds of impairment losses, 1.5 billion pounds paying for misdeeds and a 4.6 billion-pound accounting charge (ironically resulting from RBS‘s perceived rehabilitation).

If RBS can avoid further fines in 2013 and impairments continue to reduce at a similar rate, the company could report an operating profit for the full year of around 2.5 billion pounds.

At the end of 2012, RBS announced a tangible net asset value of 446 pence per share. That’s a long way ahead of today’s share price.

I believe profitable companies should not trade at a discount to their asset value. If RBS can convince the market that it will be profitable again, I expect that discount will narrow.

Furthermore, a profitable bank will likely be increasing its asset value. RBS‘s May statement could demonstrate that the bank’s shares are currently too cheap by half.

While RBS‘ recent recovery has been considerable, analysts here at the Motley Fool believe that there is an even better large-cap growth share available on the market today. Despite this company’s great success, it still trades on an attractive valuation. To find out more about this share and why our team have staked their reputations on it, get the free Motley Fool report “The Motley Fool’s Top Growth Share for 2013.” This report is 100% free. Just click here to get your copy today.

The article Is This Your Last Chance to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland? originally appeared on Fool.com.

David owns shares in Royal Bank of Scotland. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Copyright …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

It's Time to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland

By Roland Head, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland Group   is back in the headlines again, thanks to a new round of lawsuits from investors. They feel that the bank misled them when they participated in a 12 billion pounds rights issue in 2008, only to see the value of their shares plummet a few months later, when the bank was bailed out.

RBS‘s share price is down by 25% from its January peak of 367 pence. As I write, you can pick up RBS shares for less than 280 pence — and I reckon that’s a good deal.

Forget the lawsuits
The latest lawsuit to hit RBS comes from the RBoS Shareholders Action Group, which says that RBS may have to pay them 4 billion pounds in compensation for their losses.

Maybe. But I suspect it won’t, and claims like this usually rumble on for years before reaching any conclusion. Whatever the outcome, I don’t believe it will affect Royal Bank of Scotland‘s recovery prospects.

6 billion-pound capital shortfall?
Last week, a Bank of England report into U.K. banks found that they had a collective capital shortfall of 25 billion pounds. The BoE didn’t release a breakdown, but most analysts believe that RBS is worst affected, and may have a shortfall of 6 billion pounds.

Although this does need addressing, it isn’t urgent and will probably be dealt with by retaining profits and postponing dividend payments a little longer. Discussing the report, BoE Governor Sir Mervyn King, said that the problem was “perfectly manageable” and “is not an immediate threat”.

Pay 63 pence for 1 pound
The shares of a healthy bank would normally trade at or slightly above its book value. But at 280 pence, RBS shares are currently trading at just 0.63 times the bank’s tangible book value, which I think is a great opportunity for value investors.

The main risk is these assets may fall in value, or that RBS will sell some of them to raise cash. So what can we expect?

Last year, the bank’s net tangible asset value per share dropped from 501 pence to 446 pence, as it scaled back some of its operations and disposed of non-core assets. RBS expects 2013 to be the final year of restructuring so, assuming a similar performance to last year, RBS may be left with 400 pence of tangible assets per share.

At a share price of 280 pence, this still gives a potential upside of nearly 25% for new investors.

A safer alternative?
If you want to diversify away from the U.K.’s bailed-out financial sector, then I have another suggestion.

This company outperformed the FTSE 100 by 32% in 2012, and has delivered 44% earnings-per-share growth since 2009. It’s already ahead of the wider market in 2013, too.

The Fool’s analysts believe this company’s shares could be seriously undervalued, and have put all the details in a new free report. To find out more, click here to download your free copy now — but hurry, …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Big Banks Dodge a Legal Bullet

By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

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Last week, Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled against a series of class action suits that had been brought against banks, alleging that the banks were guilty of market collusion. The antitrust cases were predicated on the idea that banks got together to artificially lower rates, which in turn hurt investors. Judge Buchwald responded with a lengthy decision that said even if the banks colluded, the plaintiffs didn’t suffer because of that collusion. While it seems the result will be the end of the line for some cases, it’s not over for the banks.

LIBOR rigging
The two biggest players in the LIBOR scandal, so far, are Barclays and UBS . Both companies have admitted that they made false reports to the British Bankers Association, which is responsible for setting the LIBOR. The reasons for the false submissions varied but were largely in one of two camps. Either traders at the bank wanted to make more money with a rate change, or the banks wanted to appear stronger than they were by submitting a lower rate.

Historically, the LIBOR was set by large institutions submitting the rate at which they believed they would be able to borrow money. By submitting a lower rate, banks gave the impression that they were in better financial standing than they really were — like a bankrupt friend telling you that he can get a 15-year mortgage at 2%.

Between Barclays, UBS, and the Royal Bank of Scotland , banks have been fined a total of over $2.5 billion by regulators. So far, those banks have avoided having to pay out to individual investors, and the recent result should keep those losses pushed off for a while — if they ever come.

Other avenues to pursue
While it was the end of the line for some of the plaintiffs, the judge did allow other cases to proceed. Specifically, cases that allege fraud seem to be in better standing, as the banks clearly lied. The difficulty for investors will be in proving that those lies caused them financial damage. That’s going to be very tricky, as the LIBOR was set in a way that took some submissions out every day.

In order to hold a bank culpable, a judge would have to agree that the plaintiff suffered because of a specific bank’s submission. But that submission probably didn’t make it in every day, and even if it did, it may not have had a noticeable impact on the LIBOR for the day.

Fraud is a little easier to prove. The banks lied and misrepresented themselves as submitters of true and honest data. To prove fraud also doesn’t require proving that the banks colluded, and it may have a longer statute of limitations. 

As analysts have pointed out, fraud also requires individuals to prove that they did what they did in part because they thought the banks were not lying about their LIBOR submissions, which is difficult to prove. It …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

LIBOR Ruling Good for Investors, Bad for Customers

By Molly McCluskey, The Motley Fool

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For those Fools who hoped the LIBOR manipulation scandal might finally confront the sins of big banking, a judgment Friday brought a swift disappointment. A judge ruled that the collusion of 20 banks to rig the worldwide interest rate did not violate U.S. antitrust laws. In doing so, she effectively ended a majority of the private lawsuits brought against the 16 banks involved in the scandal.

As I wrote in January, regulation and fines would have little impact on the banks involved in the rate manipulation. Deutsche Bank was found to have made at least $654 million profit in 2008 due to a rate change. It puts the fines of the other banks in perspective: Barclays‘ $467 million fine, UBS‘s $1.5 billion and Royal Bank of Scotland‘s $612 million.

Any impetus for change would have been led by private lawsuits, and several were filed over the past year. Lawsuits in California, New York and Illinois all alleged significant financial damages as a result of the rate manipulation. Pensions for teachers and government employees, returns for individual investors, and even mortgage rates for homeowners were all affected by the rate manipulation, claimed the lawsuits. The City of Baltimore, as lead plaintiff, claimed the rate manipulation had cost the city millions of dollars, and that the collusion was a clear violation of antitrust laws.

Early in March, JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America , and several other banks involved in antitrust lawsuits claimed the rate wasn’t competitive, and therefore couldn’t violate antitrust laws. The judge agreed.

One bright spot in the scandal: U.K. politicians have called for an improvement of the culture and professional standards in the banking industry, and fines from the banks involved in LIBOR have gone to helping military veterans with combat stress and mental illness.

What does this mean for investors? As I wrote in December, the promise of change to a banking system fraught with financial disasters was encouraging, but actual change would be astounding. The dismissal of the lawsuits proves that change won’t come. While banks may stop manipulating LIBOR, the lack of significant prosecution and/or fines proves once again that such chicanery will continue in one form or another. The only question is, what form will it take next?

Bank of America is one of the 16 banks facing LIBOR charges. The Motley Fool has taken a hard look at the challenges facing the large bank and prepared a special report. Download it today; it’s free for Fools. 

The article LIBOR Ruling Good for Investors, Bad for Customers originally appeared on Fool.com.


Molly McCluskey owns shares of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Follow her on Twitter @MollyEMcCluskey. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

3 Things to Loathe About Royal Bank of Scotland

By G. A. Chester, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — There are things to love and loathe about most companies. Today, I’m going to tell you about three things to loathe about taxpayer-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland .

I’ll also be asking whether these negative factors make RBS a poor investment today.

A multitude of sins
Do you look at company results each morning via a regulatory news provider such as FE Investegate? If you own a large portfolio of shares, you probably do. Financial hacks like me certainly do. It’s very convenient… mostly.

RBS is one of a few companies that like to make simple things complicated. Its latest annual results were released in eight separate parts — an improvement on the 13 parts it was producing a couple of years ago, but a pain in the backside all the same.

Global banking giant HSBC Holdings manages to get its results out in a single release. Why can’t RBS?

Known knowns, known unknowns
Companies make “provisions” for any liabilities arising from past events for which a reliable estimate can be made. These “known knowns” are recorded on the balance sheet.

Sometimes it’s not possible to determine whether any loss to the company is probable or to estimate the amount of any loss. No provision is made for these “known unknowns.” In RBS‘s case, the known unknowns involve legal proceedings, investigations, and regulatory matters, which, if resolved against the company, could produce a big hit to net assets and cash flows.

RBS‘s litany of known knowns and known unknowns runs to 13 pages under 18 different subheads. If you want to read all the gory details, you’ll find them in part three of the results.

Political football
Owned by taxpayers to the tune of 82%, RBS is in a position unlike any other company in the FTSE 100. For the time being, the bank remains shackled by the conditions inflicted on it as a result of the government bailout, such as a bar on paying dividends and forced asset disposals.

How, when, and at what cost RBS will return to regular plc status remains to be seen — just another uncertainty in RBS‘s veritable catalogue of known unknowns.

A poor investment?
RBS‘s shares are currently trading at 275 pence, a discount of 38% to net tangible assets. Such a discount can be a “value” indicator for investors. The trouble is that RBS‘s assets may not be worth as much as their book value — and probably aren’t. Put that together with the pile of potential liabilities, and the discount could easily prove to be a mirage.

If RBS isn’t a poor investment, it’s certainly a highly risky one. This is not a stock I’d personally be buying for my retirement!

If, like me, you’re in the market for more solid blue-chip companies, I recommend you read this brand-new Motley Fool report.

You see, our top analysts have scoured the FTSE 100 and come up with five great shares to retire on. You can read an in-depth review …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Can Royal Bank of Scotland Outperform Wells Fargo?

By Roland Head, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — If you’re interested in building a profitable, diversified portfolio, then you will often need to compare similar companies when choosing which share to buy next. These comparisons aren’t always as easy as they sound, so in this series, I’m going to compare some of the best-known names from the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and the U.S. stock market.

I’m going to use three key criteria — value, income, and growth — to compare companies to their sector peers. I’ve included some U.S. shares, as these provide U.K. investors with access to some of the world’s largest and most successful companies. Although there are some tax implications to holding U.S. shares in a U.K. dealing account, they are pretty straightforward and — I feel — are outweighed by the investing potential of the American market.

Today, I’m going to take a look at the U.K.’s biggest banking bailout recipient, Royal Bank of Scotland Group  , and a U.S. bank in which billionaire investor Warren Buffett has approximately an 8% stake — making it one of his biggest four investments — Wells Fargo .

1. Value
The easiest way to lose money on shares is to pay too much for them — so which share looks better value, RBS or Wells Fargo?

Value RBS Wells Fargo
Current price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) n/a 11.0
Forecast P/E 10.3 10.2
Price-to-book ratio (P/B) 0.5 1.4
Price-to-sales ratio (P/S) 1.0 2.3

On paper at least, RBS is a much more compelling value investment than Wells Fargo, as it trades at around half its book value and just one times its annual revenue. Consensus forecasts suggest that RBS may return to profit this year, and while this is far from certain, it does look more likely than at any previous time since the bank was bailed out in 2008.

A return to profitability will be the first step on the road back to normality for RBS — it doesn’t currently pay a dividend and is 82%-owned by the U.K. government — and could encourage big institutional investors to move back into the stock, which would help lift the company’s share price closer to its book value.

2. Income
With low interest rates set to continue for the foreseeable future, dividends have become one of the most popular ways of generating an investment income. How do RBS and Wells Fargo compare in terms of income?

Value RBS Wells Fargo
Current dividend yield 0% 2.5%
5-year average historical yield 0% 2.3%
5-year dividend average growth rate n/a -5.7%
2013 forecast yield 0.06% 2.7%

Wells Fargo is a clear winner in terms of income — although its 2.5% yield is fairly modest by U.K. standards, RBS pays no dividend and is unlikely to pay a meaningful dividend for another year or two, if not longer.

3. Growth
Even if your main interest is value or income investing, you do need to consider growth. At the very least, a company needs to deliver growth in line with inflation — and realistically, most successful companies need to grow ahead …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Calumet to Float New Unit Issue

By Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

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Calumet Specialty Products will float a new offering of its partnership units. The company will issue 5.25 million units in an underwritten public offering. Calumet also intends to provide those underwriters a purchase option for an additional 787,500 million units.

The company did not specify the timing of the issue, nor did it announce a price. It said it expects to use the proceeds of the issue for “general partnership purposes, including working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and potentially the redemption or repurchase of outstanding notes.”

The investment banking arms of Barclays, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, and Royal Bank of Canada are the joint book running managers for the issue.

The article Calumet to Float New Unit Issue originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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PREI® names Morgan Laughlin to lead its Asia-Pacific business

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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PREI® names Morgan Laughlin to lead its Asia-Pacific business

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Prudential Real Estate Investors has named Morgan Laughlin head of its Asia business, responsible for managing the company’s operations and strategy in the Asia Pacific region. PREI® is the real estate investment management and advisory business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE).

Laughlin, based in Tokyo, replaces Victoria Shigehira Sharpe, who has taken a new role with the Global Institutional Relationship Group for Prudential Investment Management. Based in Singapore, she will focus on expanding key client relationships for all of Prudential’s asset management businesses.

“Morgan is an invaluable addition to our global management team, bringing deep experience in building businesses in emerging and developed markets in Asia and a track record that includes managing real estate debt, direct real estate investing, client engagement and regional management,” said Allen Smith, CEO of PREI. “His well-rounded background will help to expand our business as we seek to offer our clients strong investment opportunities in the region, and strengthen our ability to provide Asian investors access to investments around the world.”

PREI had about $8 billion in gross assets under management in Asia ($4.5 billion net) as of December 31, 2012, and has been investing in the commercial real estate markets of Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, China, India and Australia since 1994. Operating in the region as Pramerica Real Estate Investors, the company has offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong, and has a representative office in Sydney.

Laughlin joins PREI from Grosvenor Fund Management, where he was most recently a regional director responsible for managing its real estate business Asia Pacific Region. Earlier, he held several roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland, including head of portfolio management, the Japanese business, real estate advisory business and real estate finance. He previously led DB real estate for Asia ex-Japan for Deutsche Bank (RREEF), and worked for Bankers Trust Company and Paine Webber.

Laughlin earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from Columbia College. He has lived and worked in the U.S., Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

PREI is a leader in the global real estate investment management business, offering a broad range of investment vehicles that invest in private and public market opportunities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Headquartered in Madison, New Jersey, PREI has other offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Miami, London, Lisbon Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Mexico City, Sao …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

How the Coming Economic Recovery Will Boost Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays

By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Shares in the U.K.-focused high-street banks, Lloyds Banking Royal Bank of Scotland   and Barclays  , were hit this week following the EU bail-out of Cyprus and the accompanying raid on savers’ deposits.

It’s a salutary reminder how vulnerable U.K. banks are to mishaps in the eurozone. But while markets shudder, it’s worth thinking about the long-term trajectory for bank shares.

Governor spies recovery
The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said last week that he thought an economic recovery would ‘come into sight’ during 2013. That’s no reason to open a bottle of champagne, but it’s a reminder that the economy is heading upwards, not downwards.

The Governor pointed out that GDP statistics were distorted by problems in North Sea oil construction and production. If it hadn’t been for those, the U.K.’s economy would have grown by 1.5% last year.

Banks are highly sensitive to the economies in which they operate, and share prices generally anticipate future developments. So the banks’ shares should start to reflect expectations of a strengthening economy.

Bad debts
Economic growth translates into a healthier corporate sector, which is more credit-worthy and borrows more.

A healthier economy reduces the incidence of bad debts, alleviating concerns that banks might need to raise more capital. Only recently, shareholder-consultants PIRC calculated that if the old-style U.K. GAAP accounting rules still applied, RBS would need to make an additional 9.4 billion pounds of provisions for bad debts. The hit at Barclays and Lloyds would be 7.3 billion pounds and 2.5 billion pounds respectively.

Investment
Finally, economic growth should feed through into the personal sector.

It looks as if RBS shares the Governor’s optimistic view. It’s going to invest 700 million pounds over the next three years to revamp its U.K. bank branches. Meanwhile, Barclays has identified U.K. mortgages, wealth management and Barclaycard as business areas to invest in. You never know, competition might hot up between the lenders.

With Lloyds and RBS on the path to privatization and Barclays reinvigorated with a new management and strategy, the trio’s shares should react quickly to signs of economic recovery. But the impact of Cyprus‘s bail-out shows they remain vulnerable to the eurozone crisis.

If you already own banks but are looking for a growth story with a lower risk profile, I suggest you look at this company. It hasn’t made a capital call on its shareholders for more than 70 years, and has increased or held its dividend every year since at least 1988.

Its earnings per share have risen by 44% since 2009, and there could be considerable value that isn’t reflected in the share price. That’s why it’s “The Motley Fool‘s Top Growth Stock for 2013.”

You can learn more by downloading a free report from the Motley Fool — just click here.

The article How the Coming Economic Recovery Will Boost Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays originally appeared on Fool.com.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Barclays vs Lloyds Banking vs Royal Bank of Scotland

By G. A. Chester, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — It’s more than five years since Royal Bank of Scotland Group   and Lloyds Banking Group  were bailed out by the British taxpayer — and Barclays   narrowly avoided the same fate by raising 7 billion pounds from investors in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Today, RBS is still more than 80% taxpayer-owned, and the taypayer’s stake in Lloyds stands at 39%. Meanwhile, Barclays has joined the ranks of the rank-smelling banks after a series of scandals, the latest of which concerns allegations that Barclays’ Middle East rescuers were loaned money to invest in the bank by Barclays itself.

All three banks still have a long way to go to repair their reputations and businesses. After their recent annual results, which of the three offers investors the best value?

Value basics
Let’s start with the key numbers used by classic value investors: discount to tangible net asset value (TNAV), price to earnings (P/E) ratio, and dividend yield

  Share Price TNAV Per Share Discount to TNAV Forecast P/E 2013 Forecast Yield 2013
Barclays 320p 373p 14% 8.6x 2.3%
Lloyds 50.5p 54.9p 8% 11.7x 0.4%
RBS 308p 446p 31% 12.8x 0%

For a simple overview, if we rank the banks on the three value measures, with one being the best value and three being the worst, we get: Barclays 2, 1, 1; Lloyds 3, 2, 2; and RBS 1, 3, 3. On this basic test of relative value, Barclays stands head and shoulders above its rivals.

For some value investors, the fundamental numbers are all that count, and such investors would declare Barclays the best value without going any further. But let’s go a bit further and see where it takes us.

Assets
The banks have been slimming down their businesses by disposing of non-core assets. The affect of these disposals on the balance sheet can be positive or negative, as Lloyds and RBS demonstrated just last week.

Lloyds sold part of its shareholding in FTSE 250 wealth manager St James’s Place for around 500 million pounds, adding 1.7 pence a share to TNAV — bringing the end-of-year number in the table above up to 56.6 pence and the discount to 11%.

RBS also raised around 500 million pounds last week, but in this case incurred a modestly negative result. The bank’s sale of part of its shareholding in FTSE 250 insurance group Direct Line was at 201 pence a share compared with a carrying value of 216 pence on the year-end balance sheet.

RBS‘s sale of Direct Line was mandated by the European Commission, and both RBS and Lloyds face further forced disposals under obligations to Europe.

Lloyds has been in talks with the Co-operative Group since last July about the sale of 632 branches. Meanwhile, there is currently no definite interest in the 316 branches RBS is obliged to relinquish, and there looks little prospect of RBS avoiding a loss on disposal.

While RBS appears to be more vulnerable to asset writedowns than its rivals, how future asset sales will actually play out is anybody’s guess.

Earnings
The banks have made provisions of billions of pounds for a litany of past vices, including the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and interest rate hedging products. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Barclays, Lloyds, and Royal Bank of Scotland Head Lower As Cypriot Bank Tax Hits FTSE 100

By Maynard Paton, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — The shares of leading U.K. banks fell during early London trade this morning following news that Cyprus had implemented a bank levy that would charge depositors up to 10% of their savings.

Barclays  slid 11 pence to 309 pence, Lloyds Banking  lost 1.3 pence to 49.2 pence while Royal Bank of Scotland  dropped 10 pence to 298 pence as investors responded to a fresh wave of eurozone debt fears.

The FTSE 100 index dived 62 points to 6,427.

The Cypriot bank levy is part of a wider, 10 billion-euro bailout negotiated by the Mediterranean island with the European Union and International Monetary Fund over the weekend. Cypriots with up to 100,000 euros in their accounts will pay 6.75%, while those with more face a 9.99% charge.

In return, Cypriot savers will receive shares in their bank. 

Savers with deposits in the U.K. arms of Cypriot banks are reportedly unaffected by the levy. The U.K. government has also pledged compensation to any U.K. military personnel that suffer a charge.

The news from Cyprus may well test the resolve of U.K. bank-sector shareholders, who have enjoyed racy returns since the summer of last year.

Indeed, from trough to peak during the last year or so, the shares of Lloyds have lunged from 25 pence to 55 pence, RBS has rallied from 196 pence to 366 pence while Barclays has bounced from 151 pence to 327 pence.

Within it latest results, Lloyds said its total asset exposure to Cyprus had dropped from 210 million pounds to 104 million pounds during 2012. In addition, the 2012 figures from RBS showed its exposure to the island falling from 438 million pounds to 377 million pounds.

Meanwhile, last year’s numbers from Barclays showed Cypriot assets reducing from 316 million pounds to 300 million pounds.

Overall, the exposure to Cyprus looks relatively small when each of the three banks reported group risk-weighted assets of more than 300 billion pounds.

Of course, whether the deposit levy in Cyprus will prompt wider banking problems within the rest of the troubled eurozone — and create further selling pressure on U.K. bank shares — is something nobody can really determine right now.

But if you already own your fair share of bank shares and are looking for a less volatile investment right now, this exclusive in-depth report reviews a solid, predictable alternative within the FTSE 100.

Indeed, the blue chip in question offers a dependable 5.7% income, might be worth 850pversus around 700 pence now — and has just been declared the “Motley Fool’s Top Income Stock For 2013!”

Just click here to download the report — it’s free.

The article Barclays, Lloyds, and Royal Bank of Scotland Head Lower As Cypriot Bank Tax Hits FTSE 100 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Maynard does not own any share mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Dow May Slide Ahead of Cyprus Savings Tax Vote

By Roland Head, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Stock index futures at 7 a.m. EDT indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average may open 0.61% lower this morning, while the S&P 500 may open down 0.87%.

The big story this morning involves EU member state Cyprus, where the government is planning to impose a one-off tax on all bank deposits in order to partially fund the country’s $13 billion bailout. The original plan called for a tax of 6.75% on deposits below 100,000 euros and 9.9% on deposits above 100,000 euros, but these proportions look likely to be renegotiated ahead of a parliamentary vote expected to take place later today.

Cyprus‘ banking sector is unusually large for such a small country, thanks to its status as a tax haven, and it’s thought that at least one of Cyprus‘ biggest banks would have collapsed without a bailout deal, leaving the country’s deposit guarantee scheme unable to meet its obligations. Since EU member states, led by Germany, refused to accept a partial default on Cypriot debt, the Cypriot government was left with no alternative but to introduce this unprecedented tax on savers’ deposits. The move has raised fears that a similar solution could be implemented in Spain or Italy and may undermine investors’ confidence in the euro.

Today’s domestic economic calendar starts with March’s homebuilders’ index at 10 a.m. EDT. Consensus forecasts suggest a reading of 47, up slightly from 46 in February. Companies including Ameresco, KiOR, and Cumulus Media are expected to report earnings before the opening bell this morning, but there is little doubt that most investors’ attention will be focused on events in Cyprus.

Stocks that may be actively traded today include Transocean , which was 2.1% lower in premarket trading after it announced its opposition to the dividend and director nominees proposed by activist investor Carl Icahn. Icahn has proposed a $4 per-share dividend, nominated three candidates for election to Transocean’s board, and submitted a proposal to modify the company’s staggered board structure. In a statement issued late on Sunday evening, Transocean said Icahn’s dividend proposal “is in direct conflict with Transocean’s disciplined capital allocation strategy” and that it would “adversely affect the company’s ability to operate and compete effectively.”

Banking stocks were also lower in premarket trading, with Citigroup down 2.4% and Bank of America down 2%.

European markets
European markets dropped this morning in response to news of the Cyprus bailout deal, although losses were fairly modest and mostly restricted to banking stocks.

At 7:15 a.m. EDT, the DAX was down 1.05%, the CAC 40 was down 1.43%, the FTSE MIB was down 2.15%, and the IBEX 35 was down 2.12%. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.83%, with Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland Group both down by 4.5%. One company that did beat the trend was chain retailer Marks & Spencer Group, which rose 7.7% this morning after a weekend report in the Sunday Times newspaper suggested that the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Is Now the Time to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland?

By Rupert Hargreaves, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

LONDON — I’m always searching for shares that can help ordinary investors like you make money from the stock market.

So right now I am trawling through the FTSE 100 and giving my verdict on every member of the blue-chip index. Simply put, I’m hoping to pinpoint the very best buying opportunities in today’s uncertain market.

Today, I am looking at Royal Bank of Scotland  to determine whether you should consider buying the shares at 302 pence.

I am assessing each company on several ratios:

Price/Earnings (P/E) Ratio: Does the share look good value when compared against its competitors?

Price/Earnings-to-Growth (PEG) Ratio: Does the share look good value factoring in predicted growth?

Yield: Does the share provide a solid income for investors?

Dividend Cover: Is the dividend sustainable?

So let’s look at the numbers:

Stock Price 3-Yr. EPS Growth Projected P/E PEG Yield 3-Yr. Dividend Growth Dividend Cover
Royal Bank of Scotland 302p 0% 10.5 0.2 0% 0% N/A

The consensus analyst estimate for this year’s earnings per share is 28.7 pence (57% growth) and dividend per share is 0.17 pence (reinstated).

First, I must mention that the consensus analyst estimate for this year’s earnings per share is based on underlying earnings, which excludes items such as mis-selling provisions and restructuring costs and which could significantly affect the estimate. In addition, the three-year earnings-per-share growth rate is based on the same underlying figures.

Anyway, using underlying earnings, RBS is currently trading on a projected P/E of 10.5, cheaper than its peers in the banking sector, which are currently trading on an average P/E of around 19.5.

RBS‘s P/E and high growth rate give a PEG ratio of around 0.2, implying the share is cheap for the near-term earnings growth the firm is expected to produce.

Unfortunately, RBS has not paid a dividend since 2008. However, the consensus analyst view is that RBS will offer a small dividend for 2013.

Is RBS a suitable investment yet?
As I have written before, I do not like financial stocks. In particular, I do not like the risks contained within bank balance sheets and the minefields they can become.

That said, similar to its peer Lloyds Banking, RBS has undergone a significant restructuring program during the past few years and the changes are starting to show through.

Indeed, RBS‘s underlying profit reached 3 billion pounds during 2012, almost double that of 2011. However, RBS was forced to take an accounting charge relating to the value of its own debt, which pushed the company into a loss for the year.

Nonetheless, RBS has made progress in other areas, especially the restructuring of its balance sheet. Indeed, the company’s Tier 1 capital ratio is now at 10.3%, while loans as a percentage of capital have come down to a sustainable level of 100% to indicate all of RBS‘s loans are now covered by customer deposits.

Furthermore, RBS continues to sell off non-core assets in order to pay down debt and strengthen its balance sheet. Indeed, RBS recently spun off insurer Direct Line and is planning to sell part of its stake in U.S. retail bank Citizens Financial.

In addition, management believes that 2013 will be the bank’s …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

3 Shares to Race Ahead of the FTSE 100

By G. A. Chester, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

LONDON — The FTSE 100 is on a terrific bull run, finishing today’s trading session at 6,529 points after soaring 16% in four months.

I don’t think you necessarily have to back risky recovery stocks or speculative small caps to outperform the market if this bull run continues. I reckon three companies that are giants in their respective sectors should do well — not perhaps delivering the outsize returns that some poorer-quality companies will notch up (if you can pick the right ones!), but returns ahead of the market all the same.

My three for a continuing bull run are: mining giant BHP Billiton , banking behemoth HSBC , and heavyweight asset-manager Schroders .

BHP Billiton
If the stock market bull run is to have real legs, it will require a truly improving economy. Stocks can’t go higher indefinitely on sentiment alone. A global economic recovery will inevitably be allied to demand for resources in China and other industrializing countries. Step forward, mining giant BHP Billiton.

All miners had a poor 2012, dogged by weak prices and rising costs. But analysts are tentatively penciling in improving revenues and earnings going into 2014. In BHP Billiton’s case, after it took an earnings hit of more than 40% during the first half of the current year, the City expects the decline to have moderated to about 30% by the company’s June year-end.

For fiscal year 2014, the consensus is for BHP‘s earnings to rise about 30% — and this forecast has been ticking up from where it was three months ago. At a current share price of about 2,100 pence, you’re paying not much more than 10 times forecast FY 2014 earnings.

HSBC
Valued by the market at more than 130 billion pounds, HSBC is more than three times the size of its nearest Footsie banking peer, Standard Chartered.

While the fortunes of Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking, and Barclays are all — to a greater or lesser degree — tied to the economies of a single country or region, HSBC is a truly global giant with revenue well-balanced between Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region. As such, HSBC is poised to thrive in a recovering world economy.

A current price-to-book value of 1.3 may not sound too attractive, but HSBC‘s net assets are forecast to increase rapidly over the next couple of years. If the group makes analyst estimates of 660 pence per share in net assets by the end of 2013 and the market ups its P/B rating to two (let’s not forget the P/B was between 2.5 and three before the financial crisis), then HSBC‘s shares could trade at more than 1,300 pence compared withabout 725 pence today.

Schroders
The reason why an asset manager such as Schroders can be expected to race ahead in a bull market is really quite simple. If Schroders can increase assets under management and keep the cost base low, the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Should I Buy Lloyds Banking for My ISA?

By Maynard Paton, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

LONDON — You only have a few weeks to use your tax-efficient ISA allowance before the April 5 deadline. ISAs are issued on a use ’em or lose ’em basis, so don’t fluff it. You can save up to 11,280 pounds in the current tax year, and put the lot of it into stocks and shares. To find out more, click here. But which stocks should you buy? How about Lloyds Banking Group  ?

Failures or safe?
Loathe them or loathe them, the major U.K. high street banks are too big to fail. The taxpayer knows this, to their cost. Politicians know it, and feel helpless. The Bank of England knows it, and sets monetary policy accordingly. Does this make Lloyds a failsafe investment for your ISA?

Up, up, up
The big banks have enjoyed a share-price resurgence over the past twelve months.

Royal Bank of Scotland is up 18%, Barclays is up 32%, but Lloyds has trumped them both with a 48% rise. That compares to a return of around 7% from the FTSE 100.

The banks have been the major beneficiaries of the central-banker policy of flushing markets with loose money and liquidity. Lloyds did particularly well out of the Bank of England‘s Funding for Lending Scheme, picking up 22 billion pounds to fund cheap loans, compared to just 9 billion pounds for Barclays.

Lloyds has also been working hard to mend its broken business and simplify its sprawling operations, off-loading everything from private-equity assets to Irish property loans, and selling 632 branches to the Co-operative Bank. Lloyds has also pulled out of ten territories, and is now focused mostly on the U.K.

Cutting its losses
Lloyds’ full-year results for 2012 showed a dramatic slowdown in the rate at which it is losing money.

Losses fell to 570 million pounds, down from a massive 3.5 billion pounds in 2011. The 2012 figure included 1.9 billion pounds set aside for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) and interest rate swaps. Excluding mis-selling claims, the bank’s underlying group profit actually rose to 2.6 billion pounds, up from 638 million pounds in 2011.

Compare that to the 5.2 billion pounds pre-tax loss posted by RBS, and Lloyds starts to look positively healthy.

Lloyds also plumped up its financial cushion, or core tier 1 ratio, by another 12%, and cut group costs by 5% to 10 billion pounds, two years ahead of schedule. Management now plans another 9.8 billion pounds of cost cutting in 2013.

And the bank continues to raise money by off-loading assets, scooping 520 million pounds from institutional investors by selling a 20% stake in financial advisor St James’s Place. Lloyds still has a 37% holding, but won’t sell any more shares for at least a year. Every little helps.

One scandal after another
If you’re considering Lloyds for your ISA, you also have to be aware of every scrap of potential downside.

We’re all victims of the banks, but the banks are their own worst enemies. The PPI mis-selling scandal has so far cost …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance