RBS cuts jobs and ships jobs abroad september 2010
RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) are in the news today, and most of it is bad:
RBS to cut 3,500 UK support centre jobs
Around 3,500 Royal Bank of Scotland employees are set to lose their jobs, after the lender announced a second wave of staff cuts among its nationwide business support centres.
In total 20,600 UK-based jobs have been cut, with the bank keeping many operations under review for further staff reductions.
RBS ships more jobs abroad
Unite, Britain’s largest union, said it expected 500 jobs to be shifted to RBS operations in Singapore, India and the US.
A spokesman for the taxpayer-owned bank (up 0.35p to 46.13p) confirmed that many positions would be moved abroad, but said the bank had not yet decided how many.
Retrenchment is good for RBS
but not for the newly-unemployed.
Martin Flanagan of The Scotsman says “Painful it may be for the victims but retrenchment is good for RBS.”
‘Unlike many of our competitors we remain committed to our long-standing principle of situating customer contact work within the country or region where the customer is located,’ said the bank.
Reaction on the London Stock Exchange has been rather surprising:
Royal Bank of Scotland get Merrill Lynch boost
Royal Bank of Scotland shares are rising steeply following a reappraisal of their prospect from leading brokers Merrill Lynch. The firm raised its target price on R.B.S. shares to 65p from 45p, highlighting its potential to benefit from economic recovery.
‘We still believe R.B.S. is one of most geared banks into recovery in Europe,’ the broker said.
‘We think it can turn a profit in 2010 and that profitability can recover strongly thereafter driven by rising margins, tight cost control and falling bad debts.’
The brokers also said
‘We think it can turn a profit in 2010 and that profitability can recover strongly thereafter driven by rising margins, tight cost control and falling bad debts.’
Yesterday’s post on banking prospects doesn’t look so naive 
Google, Admob and competition
Google’s plans to buy a small(ish) firm that specialises in ads for small screens are being scrutinised, to see if monopoly is an issue:
…
R.B.S. Global Merchant Services unit auction
One day after the deadline for bids for buying RBS’s 318 branches, about 40 firms are thought to have bid for the Global Merchant Services unit, which includes their WorldPay business.
Bids are rumoured to have been made by KKR, Warburg Pincus, Advent International, Bain Capital, Permira, CVC, TPG and Silverlake.
The GMS business is expected to sell for between £2bn and £3bn, which would cover around 15% of the outstanding debt to the government following RBS’s collapse in late 2008.
Dog Saves Drunk Man’s Life By Eating His Toe
A special treat for Lord D. Forget the 35tonnes of stone and your wheelbarrow – this appears to be a true story
dog who chewed off his owner’s big toe when he passed out after a day of drinking has been hailed a lifesaver.
‘Have-a-toe-hero’ Kiko, a Jack Russell terrier, apparently sensed an infection in Jerry Douthett’s right big toe.
And he munched on it while his master was asleep at home in Rockford, Michigan.
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BP Gulf calamity in pictures
A very clear pictorial representation of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, from CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/gulf.coast.oil.spill/interactive/numbers.interactive/index.html
The Republican side of the US ‘government’ is now blocking Obama’s Environmental clean up bill, and seems to be leaning on him to apply further pressure on BP. It’s so much comforting to focus on other people’s faults; and maybe they still hope for an American company to buy out BP …
RBS to buy back shares from government?
Is the time ripe for RBS to buy back more of its business from the UK government? The incoming coalition would surely be glad of the cash, but also likely to be throwing its newly won weight around; if so, RBS might be wise to wait a while. The Santander deal is widely reported as bringing in a shade under £2billion, and RBS being back in profit they’d hope to pay back more than that to the government.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has now sold its 318 high street branches to Spanish bank Santander, and has also sold the relatively small offshoot in Pakistan yesterday for approximately $52 million.
The transaction is subject to regulatory and other approvals and expected to complete on 1 September 2010.
Virgin Money and Santander bid for R.B.S. branches
The forced sale of some R.B.S. branches (a sale forced by EU rules on banks bailed out by the government) has attracted several bidders, and Virgin Money and Santander are in the running. 5 companies have made bids, and US investor Wilbur Ross is backing Virgin Money’s bid.
Update 21 June 2010
Santander were the only bidder left, come the auction, and have bought the branches.
BP, environment and the dollar
Well President Obama has certainly stirred the hornet’s nest!
I wondered how long it would be before the tasty prospect of a US company taking over BP for a song raised its very plausible head:
Remember Iraq …
Quote from Guardian online:
These senators are being extremely provocative.
This is a mercantilist act of war against the UK. These thieves are using this crisis as an opportunity to steal a major UK business.
First, no escrow fund.
Second, $5 billion or less compensation, including funds already spent.
If the US bankrupts BP so that Exxon or whoever can pick it up for a song, I think we can take it as a drastic change in relations between the US and the UK.
We would be entitled to hurt US interests in return. Withdraw from Afghanistan. Seize US economic assets to compensate. Expel all US forces from the UK and pressure European neighbours to expel them also. Help other countries across the world to roll back US domination. Change the oil currency to anything but the dollar.
It’s time for Cameron to start hitting back. There’s an Exxon refinery near Southampton. That should be appropriated in compensation for unreasonable US treatment of BP.
Some of the above sounds cranky. Exxon at Southampton haven’t done any harm there; leastways not on te Gulf of Mexico scale.
Iraq changed their oil currency to the Euro shortly before USA suddenly realised they had invisible, non-detectable Weapons of Mass Destruction. This was the only objective change in their dictatorial regime that the USA had previously supported.
BP catastrophe and Japanese debt
Today’s horror stories come from Japan and USA
BP catastrophe and environmental safeguards
As many as 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of oil …
oil boom and expanding the underclass
oil boom and expanding the underclass
Maybe its time for politicians and sociologists to leave their consulting rooms and take a look at the state of Britain:
Imagine a country so witless that it lives …
BP prospects and financials
Oil company BP is in the news again, following their environmentally disastrous operations in The Gulf of Mexico.
BP conference call
British oil giant BP (BP.L) will speak with analysts …
the cost of Greek financial disaster
Greece dominates the banking news lately as they struggle to make payments on their huge loans. Could it be the dark side of democracy that governments keep borrowing instead of learning to say ‘not until you’ve earned it’ to their impatient and greedy “children”?
Today, 10th May 2010, 440bn euros of loan guarantees and 60bn euros of emergency
Vote for Slavery landlords
The pressure on councils to do more with less funds is making conditions ever worse for poor people:
housing as if people mattered.
The end of council/social housing
Last month, official figures showed …
More broker zest for R.B.S.
This morning R.B.S. shares are zooming again on the stock market, following further reappraisal by major brokers. Barclays Capital have upped their price target from 34 pence to 70 pence. This follows hard on the …
International accord on finance reforms
Following yesterday’s report from the I.M.F., UK chancellor, Alistair Darling has said that the G20 group of rich and poor countries is likely to make rapid progress on the IMF plan to tax the world’s financial institutions.
Mr. Darlingtold the Guardian newspaper that
The US and the eurozone countries were agreed that action needed to be taken to cut banks down to size and to prevent another crisis putting pressure on public finances.
The future of over-sized banks looks bleak, and on the London Stock Exchange today the modest Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland shares were faring better (both up slightly) than Barclays:
Share prices over the last month paint an even clearer picture
Barclays bank share price April 2010
Lloyds bank share price April 2010
R.B.S. Royal Bank of Scotland share price April 2010
Global recovery at 4.2% April 2010
The I.M.F. reports today that global economic recovery is faster than expected, but it targets bank profits and bonuses and government debt-to-GDP ratios (borrowing divided by Gross domestic product) as in need of control and reduction. The report says that governments need to have clear plans and make them public, so that industry and working people know how to plan their lives.
For the UK the report emphasised the high government borrowing and the need for banking reform.
The International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) has proposed that …
British banking prospects
The fate of British banks is interesting since the near-catastrophe of 2008. It’s particularly interesting to compare arguably the greatest calamity – Royal Bank of Scotland, with Barclays – the only major bank to survive without government help.
…
Current share price trends support the recovery view of RBS and the levelling off of Barclays.
barclays 3 months share price
More current affairs stories, banking news and RBS (Royal bank of Scotland) news from the past year or so.
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