IT is almost tempting to think that Ross McEwan is a glutton for punishment.
Asked about his own future yesterday as the Royal Bank boss unveiled a breath-taking £7 billion loss, Mr McEwan said he hopes to be given the chance to lead the lender back into profitability.
Mr McEwan, now three and a half years into his tenure, pinpointed 2018 as the year it is forecast the Edinburgh bank will be back in the black, although he did caveat the ambition with a couple of pretty big ifs.
That Mr McEwan has prevailed in post while presiding over thousands of job cuts, hundreds of branch closures, thumping losses and billions of fines as he has attempted to steer Royal Bank into health has maybe strengthened his resolve. But determination alone will not get the bank back to where it needs to be – and within the timeline set out yesterday.
Mr McEwan admitted it will only be when two of the biggest legacy issues Royal Bank has had to untangle – the unholy mess of Williams & Glyn and a potentially huge fine in the US for mis-selling residential mortgage-backed securities – before a clean profit can be made.
But achieving that this year seems ambitious. It will be the end of the first quarter before the EC rules on Royal Bank’s alternative proposals to selling the Williams & Glyn branches. And the bank is no clearer as to when it will finally settle with the US Department of Justice, and for how much. The end of the journey might be in sight, but the heat is still on Mr McEwan and his team.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here