Mr. Jim Brown:

The bank has been operating across the country for 177 years and, throughout the majority of that period, performing well and serving our customers well.

There is no doubt that over the past few years the bank has been in financial stress and that a significant part of our portfolio is non-performing, and we are working through those issues. As we stand at the moment we need to go through the parliamentary review and wait to see the outcome of that, but clearly, as it has been scoped so far, the Government is looking at whether the bad parts of RBS - the bad bank, so to speak - should be separated from the rest. Clearly, we have parts of Ulster Bank that would meet that criteria but we need to wait to see the outcome of that. In the meantime, while that is happening, we should continue to serve our customers well and continue to deliver on the strategy to turn the bank around.