Royal Bank of Scotland today announced its Q3 2014 Results, including those for Ulster Bank. Ulster Bank Q3 highlights include (vs Q3 2013):
Commenting on the Ulster Bank figures, Chief Executive Jim Brown said:
“Ulster Bank today announced profits of £394m (€485m), our third quarter in profit, a clear signal that our strategy is working and evidence of sustained progress across all areas of the Bank. This performance was driven by the underlying strength of the core Ulster Bank franchise and impairment recoveries, which are indicative of our proactive debt management and rising asset prices in a recovering economy.
“Today’s announcement from RBS also sees the conclusion of the extensive strategic review of Ulster Bank. RBS has confirmed Ulster Bank’s core status and a good strategic fit with RBS’ retail and commercial banking strategy. We will continue with our dual strategy of building a challenger bank in the Republic of Ireland and strengthen our market leading position in Northern Ireland as we progress closer alignment with RBS in Great Britain.
"We continue to focus on the needs of our customers and provide increased lending volumes across retail, SME and corporate banking. On business lending our £1bn / €1.2bn ‘Ahead for Business’ fund has already provided almost £850m (€1,092m) to the end of Q3. In Northern Ireland, we are approving 9/10 mortgage applications and have seen a 40% increase in mortgage offers year-to-date.
“Separately, Q3 sees an impairment release of £379m in RCR Ireland, during 2014 net assets have reduced from £4.8bn to £2.9bn.
“Across the business, we will continue to progress our strategy and build the best bank for customer service on the island of Ireland.”
