RBS scrapes into the black

Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland scraped into the black today with profits of £9m (€10.8m) for the first half of 2010.

The bank, which owns Ulster Bank and is 83% British taxpayer-owned, was helped by improving bad debt losses as it moved from a £248m (€298m) loss in the first quarter to a £257m (€309m) profit between April and June.