RBS fails Bank of England stress tests, to revise capital plan for better resilience

The Bank of England (BoE) released its annual bank stress tests results on Tuesday which gauges the financial strength and resilience of the UK's seven major lenders - Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Santander, Standard Chartered and Nationwide Building Society.

Results of BoE's stress tests showed that three major banks failed for different reasons. RBS failed the test, Barclays received a light fail and Standard Chartered got a qualitative fail. The Bank of England is tightening its stance on stress test capital requirements, making them more binding for banks.

RBS which is still 73 percent owned by the government after its bailout in 2008, performed the worst, missing key hurdles in a Bank of England stress test and was forced to draw up a new capital plan, which the bank said has been accepted.

BoE Governor Mark Carney said that RBS has made a lot of progress in recent years especially around its core business, but it still has legacy issues to deal with. Carney emphasized that RBS doesn’t have to raise extra capital but has to reduce risks assets, to put itself in a stronger position to handle another financial crisis.