RBS released full 2014 figures today, reporting £3.5bln loss (following £4bln write-down on US Citizens Bank), with operating profits were £3.5bln.
Significantly, RBS is further downsizing its Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB), in order to ‘create a more focused corporate and institutional bank’.
The report identifies the drivers for change being:
- Returns are too low Costs are too high
- Capital usage is too high
- Operating risks are outside of our go-forward risk appetite
The CIB will reduce country operations from 51 in 2009, 38 in 2014 to a target of 13 by 2019.
RBS country footprint for CIB by 2019
The strategy for the CIB business will be to create a:
- Strong focused product offering:
- Risk management: FX, Rates (USD, GBP and EUR)
- Debt Financing: DCM, Structured Finance, Loans (USD, GBP and EUR)
- Transaction Services: UK focused cash, payments & trade
- International capability: Full service to UK and Western European clients/counterparts (9 European offices)
- Distribution and trading hubs in UK, US and Singapore
In terms of their online digital strategy, they are targeting a Single digital platform for customers by middle of 2016. RBS’s Single-Dealer Platform called RBSMarketplace and Agile Markets which powers its global FX business, are built using the Caplin Platform.
RBS FX scorecard: Below is my analysis of RBS FX performance, based on the EuroMoney FX ranking. The tables show overall ranking, as well as by client segment and geographic region – the lower the number, the higher the ranking. As can be seen, between 2007-14 RBS ranking has fallen in every category, although their real FX strength remains a strong corporate franchise and footprint in Western Europe, which align with their 2019 ambitions below.
RBS Scorecard based on EuroMoney FX rankings 2007-2014
RBS 2019 ambitions are to become:
CIB
Top 3 UK Rates, DCM, FX
Top 3 European Structured Finance
Top 3 Western Europe Investment Grade Corporate DCM
Commercial & Private Banking
#1 SME Bank
#1 UK Commercial Bank
#1 UK Private Bank
#1 UK crown dependencies
Personal & Business Banking
#2 UK Personal Current Accounts
#3 ROI Personal Current Accounts
#2 UK business bank main relationship
Slides here and full report here
Filed under: Paul Blank |
SingleDealerPlatforms.Org 
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