RBS braces for £1bn sub-prime hit

The Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to take a £1bn write-down when it releases final results on Thursday and reveals its exposure to US sub-prime mortgages.

The Times reports that in December RBS wrote down £950m from sub-prime assets and a further £250m on its leveraged finance business ABN Amro, the bank it acquired last year, took its own US sub-prime hit of £300m.

Since those write downs credit markets have worsened and so far Alliance & Leicester, Barclays and Lloyds have all taken hits from sub-prime exposures.

Further reading:

RBS announces £950m writedown

UK banks face further writedowns