RBS cuts bonus pool to £335m after posting successive annual profits

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will hand out a £335m bonus to its staff next week with it set to announce its second successive annual profit since becoming state-owned.

The RBS board and UK Government Investments (UKGI) have agreed on the bonus amount. UKGI manages the public’s 62.4 per cent stake in the bank.

Payouts will be confirmed next Friday along with the lender’s full-year results, both of which will be disclosed to the City, according to Sky News.

It will mark the tenth year in a row that the bonus amount has been reduced following the anger that followed its £45.5bn bailout through the use of taxpayer money.

Senior staff at RBS’s investment bank, now named NatWest Markets, are unhappy with the bonus awards for 2018, Sky News understands.

There is expected to be a big improvement in year-on-year operating profit and attributable profit now RBS has fewer legacy impairment and litigation charges.

The bonus pool will be slightly less than the £342m last year despite improve financial performance, and still considerably less than the £1.3bn handed out in 2009.

RBS shares closed Friday’s session at 239.1p, meaning the bank has a current market value of £28.8bn.

Earlier this week RBS investors approved a directed buyback programme that would allow the bank to use surplus capital to acquire up to £1.5bn of the government’s shares.

RBS decined to comment on the size of its bonus ahead of next week.