FORM 6-K
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington D.C. 20549
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For
April 29, 2020
Commission
File Number: 001-10306
The
Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
RBS,
Gogarburn, PO Box 1000
Edinburgh
EH12 1HQ
(Address
of principal executive offices)
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form
20-F X Form 40-F
___
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper
as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule
101(b)(1):_________
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper
as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule
101(b)(7):_________
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information
contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information
to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934.
Yes ___
No X
If
"Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82-
________
The following information was issued as Company announcements
in London, England and is furnished pursuant to General Instruction
B to the General Instructions to Form
6-K:
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
Virtual Shareholder Event Statements
29 April 2020
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc will broadcast its Virtual
Shareholder Event at 3.00pm today. The following is an extract from
the remarks to be made by Howard Davies, Chairman, and Alison Rose,
Chief Executive, at the event.
Howard Davies
Welcome, and thank you for joining this virtual shareholder event
on the day of our 2020 AGM.
The difficult decision to exclude shareholders from our formal
meeting was taken to protect all our shareholders and
staff.
Delivering a speech like this from home is a novel experience for
me. I was expecting to be at our usual AGM venue at the
Conference Centre in Gogarburn, which, I am proud to say has been
temporarily turned into a depot for donated food supplies for those
in need, working in partnership with Social Bite and the Trussell
Trust.
But then these are exceptional circumstances. Restrictions
have been put on our personal freedoms and on the ability of
businesses to operate. I hope you are staying safe in such
difficult times.
Although you were not able to attend the AGM in person, we took
steps to ensure all shareholders could submit their votes in
advance, either online or by post. A significant number of you did
that, and we will publish the results in the usual
way.
We also think it is crucial that our shareholders have the
opportunity to scrutinise the performance of the company and its
Board of Directors.
During 2019, we held our first virtual shareholder evening - where
those attending were able put questions to a panel of executives
and Non-Executive Directors and learn more about the
business.
The Board remains committed to regular communication with
shareholders and we plan to hold further shareholder events as we
did last year.
I would like to draw your attention to some notable changes in our
membership since the last AGM.
Most significantly, we have appointed a new Chief Executive, Alison
Rose, and said goodbye to our former CEO, Ross McEwan.
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my thanks to
Ross - on behalf of the Board - for his immense contribution to RBS
through his tenure here.
The bank underwent a substantial transformation under Ross'
leadership, not least in strengthening our balance sheet and
returning the bank to profitability.
I was delighted we were able to announce Alison Rose's appointment
as Group CEO to replace Ross.
During her time leading this bank, she has set out a clear vision
to build a purpose-led organisation to balance the interests of all
our stakeholders and champion potential helping people, families
and businesses to thrive.
In addition to the change of Group CEO we have also welcomed Yasmin
Jetha as Non-Executive Director to the Group Board. She was
previously a Group Board director before joining NatWest Holdings
Limited, our ring fenced bank, as a
Non-Executive.
We have also said goodbye to Alison Davis, who stepped down from
her role on 31 March. The Group Board and RBS as a whole have
benefited from her extensive knowledge and expertise since she
joined in 2011. Her contribution to the Group Board will be greatly
missed.
Our former Company Secretary Aileen Taylor left the bank in August
2019 following 19 years with RBS, and was replaced by Jan Cargill,
previously Deputy Secretary and Director, of Corporate
Governance.
I would like, once again, to welcome my new colleagues and to thank
all those who have left us for their respective contributions to
the bank over many years.
As we enter a new era, we have announced plans to change our Group
name from RBS to NatWest.
The Board decided this was the right time to align our parent name
with the brand under which the great majority of our business is
already delivered.
Customers will see no change to the products or services they
receive because of the name change, which will become effective
later this year.
Similarly, our employees will see no change to the way they work,
and we will not be moving people out of Scotland as a result of
this decision. Nor are there any planned changes to the location of
our registered headquarters in Edinburgh.
In 2019, compared to the previous year, profits were up, costs were
down, and we grew lending to households and businesses while
retaining strong capital and liquidity
positions.
Despite a slowing economy and continued low interest rate
environment, the bank delivered a solid performance, generating a
pre-tax operating profit of £4.2 billion and an attributable
profit of £3.1 billion or £1.6 billion excluding the
foreign exchange recycling gain following the merger of Alawwal
Bank with Saudi British Bank.
We also took a significant additional charge of £900 million
relating to Payment Protection Insurance as we, along with other
banks, experienced a significantly higher number of claims than
expected as we approached the Financial Conduct Authority's August
2019 deadline.
The bank reduced its operating costs by a further £310
million, taking the cumulative cost reduction to £4.5 billion
since 2014.
And our balance sheet remained strong. We obtained a clear
pass in the Bank of England stress test in December. Our Common
Equity Tier 1 ratio - the key measure of financial strength - is
the highest of the major UK banks.
All of which means we are in a strong position as we face into the
economic impact of Covid-19, to be able to continue to support our
customers and to take decisions that will have a positive impact on
society.
I will leave Alison to talk in more detail about our purpose-led
strategy and future targets, as well as the decisions we are taking
to help our customers and communities during this difficult
time.
The Board is entirely supportive of this strategy and firmly
believes that putting purpose at the heart of our decision-making
will create a more sustainable bank that will, in turn, generate
more sustainable returns for you, our shareholders.
When I wrote to you in February, I said that uncertainty continues
to dominate the political and economic environment. That now feels
like an understatement.
Covid-19 has changed everything. Along with all other UK
banks, RBS has seen its share price fall sharply, reflecting
uncertainty about the economy and the prospect of lower interest
rates for the foreseeable future.
People are worried about their own physical and mental well-being.
They are worried about their jobs and the future of their
businesses. And they are worried about whether they will be able to
access the necessary support in a period of extended
lockdown.
We can't be sure how long the extraordinary measures that have been
put in place will last, or the toll Covid-19 will take on our
society and the economy. But we know the impact is likely to be
stark and long-lasting.
With the considerable resources at our disposal, this bank has a
responsibility to take action and make a meaningful contribution to
manage through this crisis and recover from it
The Government and the Bank of England have taken unprecedented
steps in both monetary and fiscal policy. We have already seen
interest rates cut to historically low levels, and huge
Government-backed interventions designed to enable banks to lend to
businesses and support the customers who need it the
most.
That is welcome and necessary. But the unfortunate reality is that
some of our customers are facing, and will continue to face,
extremely challenging circumstances.
We are here to help. And we are constantly monitoring the impact of
coronavirus so we can adapt our business and support the customers
and communities who rely on us every day.
There should be no doubt that the decisions being taken by the
bank, the Government and the regulators, alongside the
deterioration in the economic outlook, will have a significant
impact on our income and ability to deliver returns, at least in
the short term.
You will have seen, for example, the decisions we have taken -
alongside all the other major UK banks - to cancel the final
ordinary and special dividend payments for 2019, not to pay any
quarterly or interim dividends this year and to defer decisions on
any future shareholder distributions until the end of
2020.
That was not a decision we took lightly, and I am sure it will have
been a disappointment to many of you, especially those who rely on
the income from their shareholdings. It was, however, in response
to a formal request from the Prudential Regulation
Authority.
I would like to reassure you that we remain committed to capital
returns and we will continue to review the situation and look to
resume distributions in due course.
Our commitment to returning capital was apparent at our 2019
interim results when we paid an ordinary interim dividend of 2p per
share and a special of 12p per share. Taken together with the
£1.6 billion dividends we returned in 2018, that represents
over £3.3 billion in dividend payments to date, of which
£2 billion has been returned to the UK
taxpayer.
As part of our decision-making around dividends, we also announced
that we would not undertake any share buy backs until the end of
the year. That will have come as little surprise and is the right
thing to do.
As recently as our Full Year Results presentation in February, we
saw greater potential to take part in share buybacks in the short
term.
The situation is now very different following the outbreak of
coronavirus. Our share price currently stands at around
115p, less than half its value at the beginning of
the year broadly mirroring the share price performance of other
banks. Clearly this is very disappointing, and we would hope it is
only a temporary decline.
The Government reaffirmed its commitment to disposing of its stake
in RBS in this year's Budget, albeit over a slightly extended
period of time. But there is no realistic prospect of a share sale
soon. The Government has other priorities and more pressing
challenges. And so do we.
That said, we asked you today to renew our authority to participate
in a directed buy back of Government shares. This authority will
last for twelve months until our next AGM and provide the
flexibility for us to participate in a buy back early in 2021
should circumstances change and the Board judge it to be in the
bank's best interests. This would, of course, also be at the
discretion of the Treasury.
Turning to remuneration, we also asked you to approve the renewal
of our Directors' Remuneration Policy and the implementation of the
existing policy. The current policy has reached the end of
its three-year cycle.
The Performance & Remuneration Committee and the Board have
agreed performance measures for executive directors that are
directly aligned with our goal of being a purpose-led bank.
Measures include building the capability of employees to realise
their potential, helping to address climate change and embedding a
shared purpose across the organisation.
The current policy ensures there is significant alignment between
shareholders and the rewards achieved by executives. Around 70% of
executive director pay is delivered in shares over an eight-year
time frame. But the policy that applies to the broader workforce is
equally important and we are committed to paying all our employees
fairly.
The policy was introduced in 2017 and sought to create a simpler,
less incentivised culture, based on long-term shareholdings and
limiting the potential for excessive risk-taking. Variable pay is
delivered entirely in shares, with performance assessed before
granting awards and again before vesting to ensure that performance
has proved sustainable. It remains a relatively unusual construct
in terms of market practice, but I'm pleased to say it has received
strong support from shareholders at the last three
AGMs.
A consultation on the policy took place with our major shareholders
during 2019 and feedback continued to be positive. The Board
believes that the existing policy has served the Group well and
only a small number of changes were proposed to align with the
latest investor guidance and market practice.
●
First, the pension rate for executive directors will be reduced to
10% of base salary, in line with the wider workforce. This rate has
already been applied when Katie and Alison were appointed in
2019.
●
Secondly, building on the existing shareholding requirement,
executive directors will also be required to hold a set level of
shares for at least two years after leaving the Group.
●
Finally, flexibility will be introduced to allow Long Term
Incentive awards to be adjusted for the absence of dividends during
the vesting period. That will only be used for future awards,
and only once dividend payments to ordinary shareholders have been
re-established.
You may be aware following the publication of reports from a number
of proxy advisors that ISS and PIRC have recommended that
shareholders vote against the policy. This is similar to the
position taken by these agencies in 2017. We do not believe
this reflects the sentiment expressed by shareholders at previous
AGMs or indeed during our latest consultation
meetings.
One of the main points of contention for ISS is the disapplication
of pro-rating for Long Term Incentive awards. No pro-rating after
grant is fundamental to our Executive Director construct. It allows
for a fair level of value to be delivered to executives whilst
having significantly lower maximum awards compared to peers. As the
main performance assessment takes place before grant, the award has
already been 'earned' to a large extent. It also ties in with the
long-term aims of our policy, helping to ensure individuals are
motivated up to the point of departure and beyond.
I also want to assure you that remuneration will play an important
part in the Group's continuing response to the coronavirus crisis.
One early decision that has been made, in conjunction with the PRA,
is that we will not satisfy any variable remuneration previously
awarded to senior employees in cash. The Performance &
Remuneration Committee is closely monitoring the situation and will
consider what further actions on remuneration may be
appropriate.
As I have mentioned, we are currently in a period of extraordinary
share price volatility and the Board retains discretion to adjust
the vesting outcomes of Long Term Incentive awards to ensure they
are an appropriate reflection of performance. Executive directors
hold significant numbers of shares so they are already closely
aligned with any change in value that shareholders experience. This
is one of the main features of our policy.
Recognising the impact that the current situation is having on
people, families and businesses across the UK, Alison and I also
thought it was appropriate to forgo 25% of our fixed pay for the
remainder of 2020, which will be donated to the National
Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal. Alison has also asked not to
be considered for any variable pay this year.
Turning to diversity and inclusion, this continues to be a major
priority for the bank.
As well as being the only major European bank to have an all-female
leadership team at Executive Director level, 44% of the bank's top
4,000 leadership positions are now filled by women; a 12% increase
since our targets were put in place.
That is good progress towards our aim to have a fully
gender-balanced workforce at all levels of the organisation by
2030.
At the start of 2018, we also introduced formal UK targets to
improve the representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic
colleagues in our top four leadership layers to at least 14% by
2025. At present, that figure is 9%.
Our plan to improve this figure includes reciprocal mentoring,
targeted development workshops and leadership programmes and
ensuring we have a BAME focus on recruitment, talent identification
and promotion.
Before I hand over to Alison, I would like to reiterate how
important it is that we stand together through these challenging
times. As a bank, we are determined to play our part.
Our strong balance sheet means we are well positioned to continue
to support our customers and the UK economy during these difficult
times as well as to deliver sustainable returns to our shareholders
in the longer term.
All that remains is for me to wish you and your families the best
of health at this difficult time. And I look forward to speaking to
you face-to-face in happier and more normal circumstances next
year.
I would now like to hand over to Alison.
Alison Rose
Thank you, Howard. And welcome to you all.
As Howard said, these are unique circumstances, but this meeting is
a very important part of our calendar, and I am delighted that we
still have the opportunity to give you an update on the bank's
current position and to answer your questions, so thank you for
joining us.
Wherever you are today, I hope that you and your families are
keeping safe and well.
As you all will recognise, the challenge that Covid-19 presents to
everyone in this country and around the world is
unprecedented. Every person, family and business has been
affected by the current situation and the Group have been doing all
we can to support our customers and the communities we serve and
will continue to do so long after this first phase of response has
ended.
Over the last month alone, to support people and families, we
have:
●
Helped over 190,000 customers with a 3
month mortgage repayment holiday.
●
Frozen overdraft rates for at least 3
months, with similar forbearance available on personal loan
repayments and credit cards.
●
Established a dedicated support line
for customers over 70, and another for NHS
workers.
●
Reached out directly to some of our
most vulnerable customers, contacting over 250,000 to
date.
●
We have set up a cash delivery service
for vulnerable customers and launched a new companion
card.
●
And, importantly, we have kept the
majority of our branches open for those people and businesses who
have no other alternative to do their banking.
We
have also implemented a range of measures to support businesses,
including;
●
Announcing a £5bn Working Capital
Fund before any other bank, lending nearly £4bn to help our
customers to adapt to the crisis and begin to weather the
storm.
●
Offering up to 6-month Capital
Repayment Holidays on fixed and variable rate
lending.
●
We have moved at pace to implement the
various schemes introduced by the government, including the
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes or CBILs and the
Bank of England's Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility or
CCFF.
●
Up to Thursday 23 April we have
seen:
o c.7,400
CBILs approved at a value of c.£1.4bn.
o Following
the launch at the end of last week of the larger business CLBIL
scheme, we have already had requests totalling
£29m.
o And
executed 13 Covid Corporate Financing Facility mandates at a value
of c£3.1bn.
●
We believe we are doing more than any
other bank to operationalise and deliver these schemes for our
customers, and this week, with peers, we will launch the small
CBILs scheme as announced on Monday 27 April.
Importantly,
we have managed to extend this very substantial range of extra
support without losing sight of the bank's responsibility to manage
risk intelligently and ensure our safety and soundness is
protected.
Setting
up new processes and propositions is not straight forward, but the
resilience, determination and professionalism displayed by my
colleagues and the teams right across the bank in making this
happen has been nothing short of inspirational - and I would like
to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of my colleagues for
the amazing work they have done in the face of very difficult
circumstances.
We
have also been working hard to ensure that staff across the bank
have been properly supported through the coronavirus
outbreak.
In
the midst of huge uncertainty, one of the first things we did was
to reassure colleagues that they would continue to be paid their
full salary for the following six months should their ability to
work be impacted by coronavirus.
We
have also had to stand up new ways of working for thousands of
colleagues at very short notice. We currently see between 40-50,000
members of staff working from home each day - three times our
previous record. We have also been directing our colleagues
to where the greatest need is, and have retrained or redeployed
staff to areas where we have needed to increase
capacity.
We
have also used our strong regional footprint to support both our
customers and our colleagues. Our deep sector expertise in the
regions is helping us respond in a targeted fashion to support
businesses, we are using our Regional Boards to gather insight and
share best practice to inform our response, and we are engaging
with communities locally to offer our support where we
can.
Beyond
our customer and colleague base, we've also reached directly into
the community to offer further help. This includes a £5m
support fund for young entrepreneurs through the Princes Trust; a
£5m fund available to match customer donations to the National
Emergencies Trust; with £3m raised to date; as Howard
mentioned, turning the Conference Centre at our Edinburgh
headquarters into a distribution centre for food banks across
Scotland, and last week we joined with our catering partner Baxter
Storey to give over use of our kitchens at Gogarburn to help
prepare food for front line health care workers.
Like
everyone across the country, we are all in awe of the work they are
doing and I'd like, on behalf of the bank, to say thank you to
everyone working in the NHS and the care sector for their amazing
efforts.
Our
response has been guided by our Purpose that we launched in
February - to champion the potential of people, families and
businesses so they can thrive.
Building
a purposeful bank drives our strategy, and I am proud to see how
our purpose-led approach over the last seven weeks has shaped how
we have made decisions and responded to this crisis.
Long
term success is about balancing the interests of all of our
stakeholders - our shareholders, our customers, and our colleagues,
as well as the communities that sustain us.
That
is the core of the strategy that I set out in February, and is what
we will maintain as we navigate through the coming
years.
I
want to now briefly cover an update on the focus areas and
priorities of our strategy, before briefly summarising our 2019
financial results.
When
we laid out our purpose-led strategy in February, I highlighted 3
particular areas of initial focus; learning, enterprise and
climate. Our focus on these remains unchanged:
● On learning, there is a clear need to develop
greater financial capability and confidence in our communities, as
well as a dynamic learning culture for our colleagues. This
remains critical and we have launched a learning academy across the
Group as well as enhanced learning and support for our customers to
help them through this crisis and support financial
capability.
● On enterprise, and the crucial role we have to
play in supporting businesses all around the country, I have
already outlined our delivery on the Government schemes, and the
many other measures we have put in place to support our business
customers.
● As ever, we are listening and responding to their
feedback, and our teams in every region are engaging with customers
every day of the week, to do all we can for them in this critical
time.
● And on climate, something that despite the
immediate challenges we face, still remains one of the defining
challenges of our lifetime. We have committed to £20bn of
additional funding and financing for climate and sustainable
finance by 2022, as well making our own operations net carbon zero
in 2020 and climate positive by 2025. We want to at least halve the
climate impact of our financing activity by 2030 and we are working
to quantify our climate impact and set sector-specific
targets.
We
identified these 3 areas because they are issues where we believe
our business and role in society means we can make a meaningful
contribution. For now, we are rightly putting much of our focus
into helping navigate through the crisis. This may impact how
quickly we reach our initial goals, but our long-term ambitions
have not diminished.
Aligned
with our purpose, I also set out more details on some of the key
strategic actions we will take over the coming years, based on the
core themes of being safe, simple and smart.
Firstly,
I have made it clear that safety and soundness will underpin
everything we do.
Our
strong balance sheet and intelligent focus on risk remain
absolutely critical, especially as we continue to support
responsible lending in order to stand by our
customers.
In
today's digital world, our operational resilience and keeping our
customers' data safe are top priorities, so we continue to invest
in fraud prevention and security.
Our
investment and innovation in digital has helped us to respond in an
agile fashion to offer simple and smart solutions to our
customers.
One
of the key reasons we have been able to develop these products and
solutions so quickly and safely in recent weeks is because of our
ongoing investment in our digital platforms.
Partnerships
are another important part of our future strategy and we will
continue to look to partner in order to innovate.
Ongoing
simplification of our processes and customer journeys is key, and
these examples mentioned today show how, in many ways, this crisis
has accelerated our progress in doing this.
Being
safe, simple and smart will, therefore, not only guide us in
supporting our customers and the UK economy through this crisis,
but also guide our thinking in how we shape the bank as we emerge
from it.
When
I spelled out our plans in February, we could not have predicted
how quickly, or how severely the coronavirus pandemic would come to
affect everyone. However, it is important to note that we face into
this crisis from a position of strength. Last year, despite
considerable uncertainty in the economy, we delivered a solid set
of results. As Howard mentioned, for 2019, we reported an operating
profit before tax of £4.2 billion, and a bottom-line profit of
£3.1 billion. These are both up substantially on 2018,
benefitting from one-offs in the year.
We
also exceeded our targets for the year on lending and on cost
reduction, we saw £310m in savings - above our £300m cost
target.
Underlining
our core stability, we ended the year with a CET1 ratio of
16.2%.
We
will shortly release our Results for Q1, so you will understand
that I am restricted in how much I can say about our financial
performance so far this year.
It's
widely expected that the coronavirus pandemic will continue to have
a serious impact on the economy, and consequently impact our
performance, especially over the short-to-medium term. Along with
the Board, my executive team and I are actively managing against
that disruption, ensuring we offer the support our customers need
while maintaining a prudent approach to risk.
Given
these pressures, we remain more confident than ever that the
priorities I laid out in February, and have shared with you today,
set the right path for the Bank in the long term.
Among
those priorities were the changes we said we would make to NatWest
Markets.
I
am pleased to say that we have already begun the work to refocus
the business, as it becomes a smaller, less expensive part of the
Group, more closely aligned to our core customer base. Tightly
managing our costs is going to be fundamental for us, and if we
want to be able to give our customers the support they need, we
must remain focused on the need to simplify. These changes are an
important part of that simplification.
We
are now more than a month into an extraordinary period of lockdown,
affecting the vast majority of the countries in which we operate.
Economic activity has been severely disrupted, and there are likely
to be lasting effects for many.
As
I hope I have made clear today, we have used our purpose to drive a
proactive and comprehensive approach to supporting our customers,
and we will continue to do so.
Throughout
this difficult period, there have been also been some positives
that we can reflect on. Across industry, as well as with our
political and regulatory stakeholders, we have seen a fantastic
spirit of collaboration as we try to implement mechanisms aimed at
supporting wide swathes of the economy.
At
some point, probably gradually at first, life will begin to return
to a new normal. When this happens, it is just as important that we
are positioned to support economic recovery. By maintaining our
focus on becoming purpose-led, carefully utilising the financial
strength we have built over the last few years and being there for
our customers as we rebuild, we can continue playing our part to
champion potential, helping people, families and business to
thrive.
Thank
you.
Forward looking statements
This document contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995, such as statements that include, without limitation,
the words 'expect', 'estimate', 'project', 'anticipate', 'commit',
'believe', 'should', 'intend', 'plan', 'could', 'probability',
'risk', 'Value-at-Risk (VaR)', 'target', 'goal', 'objective',
'may', 'endeavour', 'outlook', 'optimistic', 'prospects' and
similar expressions or variations on these expressions. These
statements concern or may affect future matters, such as RBSG plc's
future economic results, business plans and strategies. In
particular, this document may include forward-looking statements
relating to RBSG plc in respect of, but not limited to: its
regulatory capital position and related requirements, its financial
position, profitability and financial performance (including
financial, capital and operational targets), its access to adequate
sources of liquidity and funding, increasing competition from new
incumbents and disruptive technologies, its exposure to third party
risks, its ongoing compliance with the UK ring-fencing regime and
ensuring operational continuity in resolution, its impairment
losses and credit exposures under certain specified scenarios,
substantial regulation and oversight, ongoing legal, regulatory and
governmental actions and investigations, the transition of LIBOR
and IBOR rates to alternative risk free rates and RBSG plc's
exposure to economic and political risks (including with respect to
terms surrounding Brexit and climate change), operational risk,
conduct risk, cyber and IT risk, key person risk and credit rating
risk. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results and
performance to differ materially from any expected future results
or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences
in current expectations include, but are not limited to, the final
number of PPI claims and their amounts, legislative, political,
fiscal and regulatory developments, accounting standards,
competitive conditions, technological developments, interest and
exchange rate fluctuations, general economic and political
conditions and the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic
and its impact on RBSG plc. These and other factors, risks and
uncertainties that may impact any forward-looking statement or RBSG
plc's actual results are discussed in RBSG plc's UK 2019 Annual
Report and Accounts (ARA) and materials filed with, or furnished
to, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not
limited to, RBSG plc's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and
Reports on Form 6-K. The forward-looking statements contained in
this document speak only as of the date of this document and RBSG
plc does not assume or undertake any obligation or responsibility
to update any of the forward-looking statements contained in this
document, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, except to the extent legally required.
Legal Entity Identifier:
2138005O9XJIJN4JPN90
Date: 29
April 2020
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THE
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP plc (Registrant)
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By: /s/
Jan Cargill
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Name:
Jan Cargill
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Title:
Deputy Secretary
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