Royal Bank of Scotland Faces Further Write-Downs

Royal Bank of Scotland reported a smaller-than-expected write-down of 206 million pounds ($334 million) on toxic assets in the third quarter but said it faces more this quarter and bad debts are rising sharply, sending its shares lower.
R.B.S., which is taking 20 billion pounds of emergency capital from the government, said it wants to be in a position to resume paying dividends in 2010, which would require it to buy back 5 billion pounds of government preference shares.
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“We are hopeful that we are able to remove the dividend block in time for fiscal 2010,” he told reporters on a conference call.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/royal-bank-of-scotland-faces-further-write-downs/