Ross McEwan added that 'clearing these hurdles is a vital aspect of our plan'. The costs are made up of £334 relating to alleged Forex manipulation, £257m over the alleged mis-selling of packaged bank accounts, £100m relating to the sale of Payment Protection Insurance and £176m on other regulatory and legal issues.

Timing of talks

In a call to analysts, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland said: 'We can't be clear [on when the litigation issues will be resolved]. But we know that the costs will be substantial. Ideally we'd like to get those [issues] out of the way by the end of 2015 but that depends on the court dates and when authorities talk to us.' Source: Business Insider