The Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s largest government-owned bank and parent of Citizens Bank in Connecticut, reported Thursday a smaller net loss for 2010 after returning to profit in the final quarter of the year and said its recovery from the crisis was ahead of schedule, The Associated Press reports.
The 1.1 billion pound ($1.8 billion) loss was an improvement on a 3.6 billion pound loss in 2009 and a 24.3 billion pound loss in 2008, but the bank’s share price took a hit as it missed analysts’ expectations.
RBS also faced criticism from unions after revealing it plans to pay out bonuses totalling 950 million pounds to its investment banking staff.
The bank returned to the black in the final quarter of last year, posting a small net profit of 12 million pounds, compared with a 765 million pound loss in the same quarter in 2009, even though it took a 1.1 billion pound charge at its Irish subsidiary, Ulster Bank.
Money set aside for bad loans fell 33 percent to 9.3 billion pounds over the year.
Chief Executive Stephen Hester, who was brought in by the government to replace disgraced former CEO Fred Goodwin, said the bank’s recovery is “ahead of schedule” two years on from the global financial crisis.
