The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC Primary Credit Analyst: Alexandre Birry, London (44) 20-7176-7108; [email protected]Secondary Contact: Dhruv Roy, London (44) 20-7176-6709; [email protected]Table Of Contents Major Rating Factors Outlook Rationale Related Criteria And Research WWW.STANDARDANDPOORS.COM/RATINGSDIRECT AUGUST 3, 2016 1 1686198 | 301308293
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC/media/Files/R/RBS-IR/credit-ratings/...Outlook The stable outlook on The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBSG) and its main subsidiaries balances
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External support: ALAC has replaced government support in U.K. bank ratings
In our view, RBS has high systemic importance in the U.K., mainly reflecting its material market share in retail deposits
in the U.K. Since June 2015, we have regarded the prospect of extraordinary government support for U.K. banks as
uncertain in view of the country's well-advanced and effective resolution regime. As a result, systemic banks are not
eligible for notching uplift for possible future U.K. government support.
However, we view the U.K. resolution regime as effective under our ALAC criteria because, among other factors, we
believe it contains a well-defined bail-in process under which authorities would permit non-viable systemically
important banks to continue critical functions as going concerns following a bail-in of eligible liabilities.
Our ALAC calculation at year-end 2015 includes regulatory capital instruments issued by U.K. entities that are
governed by English/Scottish law or have defined principal write-down triggers. We additionally include four New
York law subordinated instruments issued by the NOHC because we understand that they contain suitable bail-in
language. Further, we include English/Scottish law senior unsecured instruments issued by the NOHC because we
believe these issues have capacity to absorb losses without triggering a default on senior operating company
obligations. On this basis, we calculate that ALAC was in excess of 9% of S&P Global Ratings' RWA at year-end 2015.
We exclude from this calculation one perpetual instrument, which RBS announced it would call in January 2016. We
believe the ALAC ratio is likely to remain higher than our 8.5% threshold for two notches of ALAC uplift over the next
two years because:
• Future regulatory requirements appear likely to oblige RBS to increase the buffer of instruments that we expect will
be ALAC-eligible.
• We expect more jurisdictions to implement resolution regimes we deem "effective" under our criteria, which in turn
will enable more RBS securities to become ALAC-eligible.
Since 2015 year-end we observe that the NOHC has issued two ALAC-eligible senior unsecured instruments ($1.5
billion and €1.5 billion in size), although the net increase in stock was reduced by the completion of a tender offer on
older instruments.
Additional rating factors
We have applied a one-notch negative adjustment to the ratings on RBS to reflect our view that RBS is a relative
underperformer versus similar banks. We believe this to be the case in terms of RBS' current inability to generate
sustainable statutory profits and the less predictable nature of its operating performance.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
Group structure, rated subsidiaries, and hybrids
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is the ultimate holding company of the group that it heads, and is a NOHC.
The group operates through two principal U.K. banking subsidiaries: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS plc) and
National Westminster Bank PLC (Natwest). We continue to see RBS plc and Natwest as "core" to the group and expect
that regulators would intervene at the point of nonviability, bailing-in junior liabilities and, if necessary, NOHC
liabilities, to ensure that senior obligations are honored. Our ratings on these entities are therefore in line with the
ALAC-supported GCP, adjusted for the one-notch negative adjustment factor.
We do not include notches for ALAC support in the ratings on NOHCs because we do not believe that their senior
obligations would continue to receive full and timely payment in a resolution scenario. As a result of this, the NOHC is
rated one notch below the 'bbb' unsupported GCP.
The hybrid capital instruments issued by the above entities and related special purpose entities are notched down from
the unsupported GCP, being notched down in accordance with tables 1 and 2 of the bank hybrid criteria, depending on
their features. In all cases, the instruments issued by, or relying on a guarantee by, the NOHC have ratings that are one
notch below the equivalent instrument issued by an operating company.
Related Criteria And Research
Related Criteria
• Bank Rating Methodology And Assumptions: Additional Loss-Absorbing Capacity, April 27, 2015
• Bank Hybrid Capital And Nondeferrable Subordinated Debt Methodology And Assumptions, Jan. 29, 2015
• Group Rating Methodology, Nov. 19, 2013
• Revised Market Risk Charges For Banks In Our Risk-Adjusted Capital Framework, June 22, 2012
• Banks: Rating Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011
• Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011
• Bank Capital Methodology And Assumptions, Dec. 6, 2010
• Use Of CreditWatch And Outlooks, Sept. 14, 2009
Related Research
• U.K. Banks Bolster Capital, But Economic Headwinds May Start To Blow, July 25, 2016
• Various U.K. Bank Outlooks Revised Due To Potential Economic Deterioration Following Brexit Vote, July 7, 2016
• Low Credit Losses For Even Longer: The Silver Lining For U.K. Banks, April 5, 2016
• Industry Report Card: U.K. Banks Face Up To Brexit Uncertainty, March 14, 2016
Ratings Detail (As Of August 3, 2016)
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Counterparty Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
Certificate Of Deposit
Foreign Currency A-2
Commercial Paper
Foreign Currency A-2
Junior Subordinated BB
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
Ratings Detail (As Of August 3, 2016) (cont.)
Junior Subordinated BB-
Senior UnsecuredGreater China Regional Scale cnA+
Senior Unsecured BBB+
Short-Term Debt A-2
Subordinated BB+
Counterparty Credit Ratings History
07-Jul-2016 BBB+/Stable/A-2
19-Jan-2016 BBB+/Positive/A-2
09-Jun-2015 BBB+/Stable/A-2
03-Feb-2015 A-/Watch Neg/A-2
07-Nov-2013 A-/Negative/A-2
31-May-2013 A/Negative/A-1
29-Nov-2011 A/Stable/A-1
Sovereign Rating
United Kingdom AA/Negative/A-1+
Related Entities
National Westminster Bank PLC
Issuer Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
Junior Subordinated BB
Junior Subordinated BB-
Preference Stock BB-
Senior Unsecured BBB+
Short-Term Debt A-2
Subordinated BB+
RBS Holdings N.V.
RBS Securities Inc.
Issuer Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. (Milan Branch)
Issuer Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (Connecticut Branch) (The)
Issuer Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
Issuer Credit Rating BBB-/Stable/A-3
Commercial Paper A-3
Junior Subordinated B
Junior Subordinated B+
Junior Subordinated BB-
Preference Stock B+
Preferred Stock B+
Senior Unsecured BBB+
Senior Unsecured BBB-
Short-Term Debt A-2
Short-Term Debt A-3
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
Ratings Detail (As Of August 3, 2016) (cont.)
Subordinated BB
Subordinated BB+
The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V.
Issuer Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2
Certificate Of Deposit
Local Currency BBB+/A-2
Senior Unsecured BBB+
Short-Term Debt A-2
Subordinated BB+
Ulster Bank Ireland DAC
Issuer Credit Rating BBB/Stable/A-2
Certificate Of Deposit A-2
Senior Unsecured BBB
Short-Term Debt A-2
Ulster Bank Ltd.
Issuer Credit Rating BBB/Stable/A-2
*Unless otherwise noted, all ratings in this report are global scale ratings. S&P Global Ratings’ credit ratings on the global scale are comparable
across countries. S&P Global Ratings’ credit ratings on a national scale are relative to obligors or obligations within that specific country. Issue and
debt ratings could include debt guaranteed by another entity, and rated debt that an entity guarantees.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
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