The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported a loss of £968 million for the first quarter of 2016.
This figure includes the payment of the final Dividend Access Share (DAS) dividend of £1.19 billion to the Treasury.
Discounting this final charge, RBS reported a profit before tax of £421 million for the period.
The bank warned that there is a significant risk that the disposal of Williams & Glyn will not be achieved by 31 December 2017 and alternative means to achieve this are being explored. “The overall financial impact on RBS is now likely to be significantly greater than previously estimated,” it added.
Gross new mortgage lending almost doubled from the first quarter of 2015 to £7.0 billion. Buy-to-let new mortgage lending was £1.5 billion compared with £0.8 billion in Q1 2015 and £1.3 billion in Q4 2015.
RBS said it now has almost 1,000 mortgage advisers, an increase of over 20% since the beginning of 2015. Net new lending in commercial banking totalled £6.5 billion. Q1 2016 represents the fifth successive quarter of net lending growth in commercial banking.
Ross McEwan, RBS chief executive, said: “Today’s results show the strength and resilience of the bank we are fast becoming.
“This bank has great brands and great market positions and, piece by piece, we are building a solidly performing, profitable bank doing great things for customers and returning value for shareholders.”