“The industry is finally starting to recover from the financial crisis, but the rules have changed forever.
Ross McEwan had something of a spring in his step as he took to the stage at a recent banking conference.
Almost a year to the day since the New Zealand-born retail banker replaced Stephen Hester at the helm of Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank appeared in much greater health. Inessential parts had been sold off, the bank’s toxic loan book was much smaller, and there was even chatter of demand for a government share sale picking up.
“I arrived with a fundamental optimism about what we could achieve in this business, and after a year as CEO, that optimism is stronger than ever,” McEwan told the audience. He later quipped to a gaggle of reporters that even as a recent market sell-off was troubling much of the financial community, the bank’s efforts to clean itself up meant he wasn’t losing any sleep.
This week, RBS ought to serve up further evidence of the bank’s recovery. Quarterly operating profits are expected to have hit a post-crisis high, and impairment losses – the cost of writing off bad loans – will have fallen substantially. “
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