Citizens Financial, Royal Bank of Scotland post 1Q losses - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Citizens Bank’s ultimate parent, , said Friday it sufferef a first-quarter loss of 857 million pounds ($1.29 billion) due to write-offs from the financial crisis that increased despite a jumpin revenues. The loss compare with a profit of 245 million pounds inthe year-earlier The main culprit for R.I.-based Citizens appears to have been impairmenrt losses, which continued to rise and were $684 millio compared with $394 million and $651 millio n in the first and fourthh quarters of 2008, respectively. Delinquencies were $2.8 or 2.61 percent of loans, compared with $2.4 billion at the end of 2008.
Non-interest income was down $82 million at $358 Activity in core retail banking was also subduede reflecting the difficult economic Direct expenses increasedby $83 million to $556 millio reflecting a number of items including increased Federal Depositg Insurance Corp. insurance costw ($35 million), mortgage servicin g rights amortization, higher pension costs and collection costs. Loans and advances were slightly downat $110.5r billion reflecting subdued customer demanx in some sectors. Deposiy trends improved in the quarter with depositsup $3.3 billioj at $97.6 billion compared with the end of 2008. Totapl assets were listed at $157.
i billion, down from $160 billion in firs t quarter 2008. Royal Bank of Scotland’s new CEO, Stephen Hester, warned that the pareny bank’s problems would most likely continuethrougyh 2010. RBS, which is now 70 percentt owned by theBritish government, took a charge of 2.86 billiob pounds against bad debts in the firs quarter on top of other writedowns of 797 million pound on credit default swaps and other investments. Combined with previously disclosed losses, total impairment lossee and credit market writedownswere 4.9 billiobn pounds. Impairment losses have growm to 1.3 percent of the bank's loan portfolio, up from 0.9 percent at the end of last year.
Hester said additional impairmentss of nearly 3 billion pounds were likelg in each of the nextthree quarters. RBS did experience a 26 percenft increasein revenue, spearheaded by a 131 percenty jump in income from its Global Bankingf and Markets division. The first-quarter loss followedc the bank's disastrous results last year, when it lost a British corporatw recordof 24.1 billiomn pounds.