We have made considerable progress over the last year in putting our past issues behind us and continuing to build a profitable core bank. Ross McEwan, our Chief Executive, will provide more detail on our financial performance and our strategy to make RBS a simple, safe and more customer-focused bank. You will also hear from our Senior Independent Director, Sandy Crombie, on the remuneration resolutions we are asking you to vote on today and from Penny Hughes, who leads our Sustainable Banking Committee.

Let me first of all introduce the Board. On my far right is one of the new members, Frank Dangeard. Frank joined the Board in May 2016 and brings a wealth of expertise from senior roles across a range of technology and financial services companies. Next to Frank is Mark Seligman who joined in April 2017 bringing financial services knowledge and substantial FTSE 100 Board experience. Next to Mark is Morten Friis and next to him is Baroness Noakes, the Chairman of the Board Risk Committee. We then have Brendan Nelson, Chairman of our Group Audit Committee. Next to Brendan, is Ewen Stevenson, our Chief Financial Officer. On my immediate right is our Chief Executive, Ross McEwan, and on my immediate left is Aileen Taylor, Company Secretary. Next to Aileen is Sandy Crombie, the Chairman of the Group Performance and Remuneration Committee and Senior Independent Director. Then we have Penny Hughes, the Chairman of the Sustainable Banking Committee and next to her is Robert Gillespie and then Alison Davis. Finally on my far left is Mike Rogers. A number of our Executive Committee members are also with us, seated in the auditorium.

I would like to thank each of my colleagues on the Board for their continued dedication and determination over the last year. This bank is in a much better position as a result of their efforts, although there is still much to do.

I am pleased to confirm two further appointments today. John Hughes, until recently, was Head of Banking Audits at KPMG. And Yasmin Jetha who has had a range of jobs in the financial sector, notably at Abbey National, and was a member of the shadow Board we set up for Williams and Glyn, which has now been stood down. Our Board, like those of other banks, is growing in size as we plan to implement the government's ring-fencing scheme, which requires additional layers of governance. After these appointments we will be broadly in line with the Davies recommendation of at least 25% women members. We have further changes in planning which would take us to the Hampton Alexander recommended proportion of one third during 2017.

Corporate governance in listed companies generally is changing, and the outgoing government launched a consultation on further reforms. We have responded to that consultation, which focuses on efforts to strengthen the links between Boards and the company's stakeholders. We do not know what mechanisms the new government will propose. In the light of that, and having taken legal advice, we took the decision not to bring forward a proposed resolution to create a shareholder committee at RBS. We considered this proposal to be inconsistent with both the law and the company's constitution and of course it might prove not to be compatible with the Government's reforms. We are committed to increasing stakeholder engagement and Penny Hughes will talk more about our work in this area in a few minutes. We will be running two shareholder events, on 31 July in London and 30 October in Edinburgh. Anyone interested in attending can leave their name at the desk in the foyer.

Turning to the bank's strategy, we were pleased to report a profit of £259 million for Q1 2017. This was our first bottom line profit since the third quarter of 2015 and represents a strong start to the year. Over the year since I last stood before you, the share price has risen from 216p to 263p, in what has been a turbulent year for all banks. In fact over that period the RBS share price has risen more than those of our peers.

But reporting large losses like the one we took for 2016 is always difficult. Shareholders suffer most, but the bank's management and employees also feel the pain. It is important to bear in mind that this loss reflected £10 billion of one-off provisions as we sought to conclude as many of our legacy issues as possible, while continuing to restructure the bank in line with our strategy.

Our underlying results demonstrate the progress we are making. For the future, the Board remains strongly convinced that we are pursuing the right strategy. The core bank performed strongly despite the political and economic uncertainty and has now averaged an adjusted core operating profit of over £1 billion for each of the last nine quarters.

Unfortunately, we expect to take further significant one-offs in 2017 - particularly related to conduct and litigation charges and restructuring - leading to a bottom line loss at the end of the year, before targeting a return to profitability in 2018.

Reporting a bottom line profit for 2018 would be a huge milestone for the bank, after what will, by then, have been ten extremely tough years of losses.

As we move along this path to profitability, there are still a number of issues we need to resolve, in particular Williams & Glyn and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities.

On Williams & Glyn, it became clear following the EU referendum that the stand-alone challenger bank we were creating would struggle to secure a banking license from the PRA in a low interest rate environment. As a result, we started to look at a number of alternative options to meet our state aid obligations. The Treasury and the European Commission are currently consulting on a new plan which would achieve the same competition objectives more quickly and with greater certainty. We now await the conclusion of those consultations and a formal decision by the European Commission. I hope that we can reach an agreed solution later in the year.

On Residential Mortgage Backed Securities, we await resolution of the US Department of Justice's investigation into securitisations we sold in 2007. I regret to say that on that I have nothing new to report. It is our strong intention to put this behind us during 2017, but the timing is out of our hands.

There has, however, been progress on some of the other key conduct and litigation issues facing the bank. We have reached settlement with shareholders representing around 87% by value of the total claim in the 2008 Rights Issue shareholder litigation. The settlement does not constitute any admission of liability by the bank, but allows us to minimise material litigation expense and management distraction. If we do not reach settlement with the remaining claimants, we will defend ourselves vigorously when the trial starts on 22 May. The bank has been criticised for the cost of defending itself and paying the legal costs of defending our former directors, who have been named as co-defendants in the action. The costs we are having to meet are high because of the extraordinary breadth and complexity of the case. And it is normal practice under company law, and indeed it is a legal obligation for the bank, that directors should be indemnified in relation to any third party civil legal action arising from their tenure at the bank.

The FCA investigation into our former Global Restructuring Group continues, although the regulator has published an update summarising the conclusions reached by the Skilled Person appointed to review the bank's actions. We have acknowledged shortcomings in GRG and have taken two important steps - an automatic refund of complex fees and the establishment of a new complaints process overseen by a former High Court judge - to put things right for customers who did not receive the level of service they should have received, or would receive now. Importantly however, the FCA update recognised that all businesses transferred to GRG were in financial difficulty, that RBS did not inappropriately target businesses for transfer and that, in a significant majority of cases, it is highly unlikely customers suffered material financial distress as a result of the bank's actions. We continue to co-operate with the FCA and await the publication of its final report.

Turning briefly to wider economic issues, 2016 was for the UK a year of solid growth with low inflation. The growth in our business reflected that, though in Scotland the economy was broadly flat which in part, reflected a slowdown in onshore oil activity following the fall in the oil price. 2016 also saw the UK decide to leave the European Union. The exit process has now been triggered but it will be a while before we see the implications for future financial regulation. Given the shape of our business, and its largely domestic focus, RBS will be less impacted than many of its peers. Our aim is to ensure continuity of service for our EU customers and we are actively exploring options to allow us to do so.

One potentially significant outcome of the vote to leave the EU is that we might also be facing a second Scottish referendum. Before the last referendum, we said that RBS would continue its support for Scotland but would move its registered office to London. If there is a second referendum we will keep you informed of any contingency plans we might put in place.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc published this content on 11 May 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
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