LONDON: Britain's state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday said net losses more than doubled in the first quarter owing to an exceptional payment back to the government.
Losses after tax in the first three months of the year stood at £968 million ($1.4 billion, 1.2 billion euros), which compared with a net loss of £459 million in the first quarter of 2015, RBS said in an earnings statement.
Pre-tax profits came in at £421 million, up from £37 million.
However the bottom-line net figure was hit by RBS having to pay the government almost £1.2 billion in order to allow the bank to begin paying dividends again.
"An attributable loss of £968 million included payment of the final Dividend Access Share (DAS) dividend of £1,193 million to the UK government," RBS said.
In morning deals following the results, RBS shares were among the biggest fallers in London, losing 3.2 percent to 237 pence, with analysts pointing to the higher-than-expected net loss.
The capital's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.7 percent overall at 6,279.1 points.
"The big question is whether there is light at the end of the tunnel, and whether RBS has turned the corner, or whether the days of over promising and under delivering are set to continue," said Michael Hewson, chief analyst at trading group CMC Markets.
"There is some good news in that the underlying business did manage to post an operating profit of £421 million, but it does appear that the recent market volatility and low interest rate environment that has blighted the performance of its sector peers has also hit" RBS, he added.
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