RBS reported:
• A pre-tax operating profit of £3.4 billion, up 50% on full year 2017.
• An attributable full year profit of £1.6 billion, more than double what was achieved in 2017.
• A pre-tax operating profit of £572 million for Q4 2018 and first fourth quarter bottom line profit in eight years of £286 million.
• A proposal to pay a final dividend of 3.5p, following the 2p interim dividend, and a special dividend of 7.5p, taking total dividend payments to shareholders in 2018 to £1.6 billion of which around £1 billion will be paid to the UK taxpayer.
• A very strong capital position with a 16.2% Common Equity Tier 1 post dividend payments.
In 2018:
• RBS delivered £30.4 billion in gross new UK mortgage lending in UK PB.
• RBS also supported UK businesses with over £100 billion in lending through our commercial and business banking franchises.
• Given the Brexit uncertainty, RBS also made £3 billion of funding available through a Growth Fund to help businesses ready their supply chains for the UK’s departure from the EU.
CEO Ross McEwan said:
“This is a good performance in the face of economic and political uncertainty, with bottom line profits more than doubled from the previous year.
“We are also announcing an intention to pay back more capital to shareholders and almost £1 billion is set to be returned to UK taxpayers for 2018.
“With strong capital and liquidity levels, we are well positioned to support the UK economy. Our total lending to business and commercial customers reached over £100 billion at the end of 2018.”
Watch the highlights of the year:
