Guarantee cost Ulster Bank €858m
“The Irish Government’s announcement that it would guarantee the deposits of Irish banks but not banks such as [Royal Bank of Scotland] subsidiary Ulster Bank further intensified pressure on RBS’s liquidity position in the period that followed the failure of Lehman Brothers,” according to the report on the near collapse of RBS.
Ulster Bank’s assets grew at an average 26% rate in the four years through 2007 to £55 billion (€65bn). Its cumulative impairment charge for the three years through 2010 equates to 7.5% of its gross loans at the end of 2008, more than double the average 3.1% charge for RBS’s total loans over the period.
