Ulster Bank has said that its operating losses for the year to the end of December increased to £1.024 billion sterling amid continuing tough Irish credit conditions. It had reported operating losses of £761m in 2010.
Operating profits, before impairment charges, fell from £400m to £360m with lower income partially offset by cost savings.
Ulster Bank said its impairment charge rose by 19%, reflecting deteriorating bad debt trends and lower prices in the mortgage book. The bank said impairment losses for the year increased from £1.161 billion (€1.4 billion) to £1.384 billion (€1.6 billion).
''2011 was another difficult year for the business due to the continued challenging economic environment. This was reflected in the financial performance, with ongoing pressure on income and a further increase in impairment losses,'' a statement from the bank said.
Last month the bank confirmed that it will cut its workforce by 950 staff by the end of the year. 600 employees in the Republic are to be made redundant, while 350 jobs are proposed to go in Northern Ireland.
The bank blamed the deterioration in local and global economies for its need to cut jobs in both the Republic and the North, and said the actions are being taken to ensure it is able to compete effectively in the Irish market.
Ulster Bank said today that income fell by 7% due to a contracting loan book and higher funding costs. Loans and advances to customers decreased by 5% during the year.
Ulster Bank has 1.9 million customers in Ireland.
RBS net losses widen to almost £2 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland said said its net losses widened to almost £2 billion sterling in 2011, hit by the Greek debt crisis and compensation costs linked to insurance mis-selling.
RBS, 82% owned by the British government after a massive bailout in the wake of the financial crisis, unveiled losses after tax of £1.99 billion for 2011, up from £1.12 billion in 2010. Pre-tax losses surged 92%, RBS added in its earnings statement.
"After the effect of several large one-off items such as compensation costs, Greek sovereign debt impairments, and integration and restructuring costs, the group reported a pre-tax loss of £766m," the bank said.
RBS paid staff a total bonus pot of £785m, down 43% compared with 2010. This included £390m for its 17,000 investment banking staff, down 58%.
Ahead of the results, the bank's chief executive Stephen Hester bowed to public anger and waived his annual bonus of shares worth £963,000 on top of his £1.2m salary.
The large bonus, coming amid ongoing government austerity and economic gloom, had sparked outrage among trade unions and opposition politicians because RBS is almost fully nationalised following its rescue.
And in January, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, had his knighthood stripped by Queen Elizabeth II over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008.
RBS has also been hit by having to pay compensation totalling hundreds of millions of pounds to customers who were mis-sold insurance policies by the bank. In April 2011, British banks lost a high court appeal against tighter regulation of PPI, which provides insurance for consumers should they fail to meet repayments on a credit product such as loans, mortgages or payment cards.
PPI became controversial after it was revealed that numerous consumers had been sold the insurance without understanding that the cost was being added to their loan repayments. Britain has since banned simultaneous sales of PPI and credit products.
Since 2008, the British state has injected £45.5 billion of state money into RBS. Goodwin came to symbolise the financial crisis in Britain after he oversaw the disastrous multi-billion-pound deal to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro at the height of the crisis in 2007.
