RBS ups writedown

Royal Bank of Scotland, the second-biggest bank which last year led a takeover of ABN AMRO, reported a nine per cent rise in underlying profit, in line with expectations, and lifted its dividend by 10 per cent. RBS raised its writedown on assets...

Royal Bank of Scotland, the second-biggest bank which last year led a takeover of ABN AMRO, reported a nine per cent rise in underlying profit, in line with expectations, and lifted its dividend by 10 per cent.

RBS raised its writedown on assets tarnished by the impact of the US subprime housing crisis and credit crunch to £1.6 billion, excluding ABN. It had previously flagged a writedown of £1.2 billion through to the end of November, excluding a £250 million gain on the carrying value of debt held on the balance sheet.

The bank said it had also marked down the fair value of ABN's wholesale businesses by £900 million due to its exposures to problem assets.

RBS said its underlying operating profit last year reached £10.28, up from £9.41 billion in 2006 and the same as an average forecast from a Reuters Estimates poll of analysts.

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