Rbs Not Just Banking On Its Retail Customers (from Sunday Herald)

Rbs Not Just Banking On Its Retail Customers (from Sunday Herald): "RBS: not just banking on its retail customers
By John Phelps
Comment
SIR FRED Goodwin will move swiftly to deflect criticism that Royal Bank of Scotland is profiteering from its army of small customers when he unveils his latest trading spectacular on Thursday.
Followers say he will underline the group's position as the UK's most profitable homegrown bank with news of a profits surge from £7.9 billion to around £9.3bn, and there are also hopes he could announce another major share buy-back programme and a fat dividend increase.
But the chief executive will stress that the upsurge owes little to the general banking services provided for his 14 million retail customers.
advertisementThis side of the operation is understood to have provided just 10% of overall profits after showing static returns last year, and its profits are likely to be dwarfed by those from more specialised services such as business banking and wealth management.
Brokers say he needs to hammer home the message because of growing criticism of all the big banks over their charging practices and fears that they could soon end free banking with the introduction of monthly charges.
The RBS showing is expected to lag behind last week's profits surge by Barclays, but the figures should show it has narrowed the gap at the top with its great rivals at HSBC, whose own profits have suffered from problems in the US housing market.
HSBC figures are due on March 5 and are expected to show total profits of £11.5bn, some £2.2bn more the anticipated RBS returns, against a £4.3bn gap last year."