Ulster Bank in safe hands, insists chief executive

ULSTER Bank chief executive Cormac McCarthy reiterated yesterday that the bank is in safe hands, despite its parent company posting record losses and Ulster Bank itself showing a 72% fall in operating profits to €147 million for 2008.

Ulster’s parent, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), yesterday reported the biggest annual loss in British corporate history, with losses for last year amounting to a staggering £24.1 billion (e27bn).

It said it would be restructuring its business by dividing subsidiaries into core and non-core assets, with most of the latter likely to be sold off.