Royal Bank Of Scotland Share Discussion Threads

[polar fox] 10/2/2018 07:31

A real shocker - Rachel Brand is leaving the DoJ to join Walmart as their top lawyer. The NYT broke the story yesterday and their report is below.

I posted last year, that any RBS settlement was unlikely before the upcoming Results or even in Q1. Brand's departure, possibly to be followed by Rod Rosenstein's firing/resignation, will significantly extend the timing of any RBS settlement, IMO. We should probably not now expect anything in the first half of this year. I don't think it will make much difference, other than to extend the uncertainty, pretty much on an open-ended basis.

We'll see, in the Results, how RBS choose to provision or not.

Anyway, here's the NYT article, plenty more on Google:

WASHINGTON — Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision.

Ms. Brand’s profile had risen in part because she is next in the line of succession behind the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, who has called the investigation a witch hunt, has considered firing Mr. Rosenstein.

Such a move could have put her in charge of the special counsel and, by extension, left her in the cross hairs of the president.

Ms. Brand, who became the associate attorney general in May, will become the global governance director at Walmart, the company’s top legal position, according to people briefed on her move. She has held politically appointed positions in the past three presidential administrations.

In her current job, she reports directly to Mr. Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, who has recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Mr. Trump in recent weeks has escalated his criticism of the department for its handling of the inquiry and suggested that top law enforcement officials should face consequences for conduct he called “a disgrace.”

The release last week of a contentious Republican memo that accused the Justice Department and the F.B.I. of political bias raised new questions over whether Mr. Trump might seek to oust Mr. Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

Ms. Brand now oversees a wide swath of the Justice Department, including the civil division, the civil rights division and the antitrust division. She helped lead the department’s effort to extend a law that authorizes the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post last year, Ms. Brand argued that the law “has been valuable and effective in protecting the nation’s security” and that law enforcement officers would be “at risk” without it. Congress voted to extend that law, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, last month.

Last week, Ms. Brand hosted a summit meeting at the Justice Department on human trafficking. At that event, Mr. Sessions thanked her for her “strong leadership as our third in command at the department.”

But Ms. Brand has also become embroiled in the feud between the president and the nation’s law enforcement agencies. Reports that Mr. Trump had tried to fire Mr. Mueller and had considered firing Mr. Rosenstein raised questions of who would replace Mr. Rosenstein.

Ms. Brand’s assistant, Currie Gunn, has also left the department. Ms. Gunn could not be reached for comment.

unquote

[maxk] 09/2/2018 23:21

Yes, you cant beat fundamentals to show real price discovery.

[smurfy2001] 09/2/2018 22:28

Damn that delicious volatility!

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 20:54

Now +469.17

[raffles the gentleman thug] 09/2/2018 17:31

And stocks like Apple only now on about 12x earnings before distribution of cash. Haven't actually seen US market this cheap in long while - but the U.K. pretty darned cheap too

[raffles the gentleman thug] 09/2/2018 17:23

Yea but it's only pricing off the US which is being effected by mutual fund redemptions now. But the value is starting to be apparent - for instance Microsoft three/four years out is now the same price as RBS !

[polar fox] 09/2/2018 17:15

The volatility is incredible - already FTSE is trading on IG around 60pts below our close only half an hour ago!

[ramco] 09/2/2018 16:14

Appears that 'In history" is becoming serial...now it's been the biggest equity fund weekly outflow in history..;

[smurfy2001] 09/2/2018 16:05

Not sure about this one but ahh what the hell still punting it will go up ahead of results.

Action Buy
Order Type Market
Symbol RBS
Quantity 4,575.00
Limit Price
Price £2.759

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 15:49

Chinese New Year next Friday.

Then it will be the year of the dog.

And as we know the year of a person's birth sign is the most unlucky, which is not so good for Trump, because he was born in one.

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 15:42

In New York it is a case of never mind the price just trade the volatility. The bots are running rampant.

[maxk] 09/2/2018 15:04

If there is no deal, and the whole shooting match goes to WTO, who will suffer?

Bearing in mind certain countries within the €U have a big trading advantage...

You know who it is..

[smurfy2001] 09/2/2018 14:34

Damn missed that trade at 273 oh well next time.

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 14:14

Graham that is most assuredly one way of getting Corbyn into No.10.

[polar fox] 09/2/2018 14:14

NIESR just came out with their latest GDP estimate. They first mentioned the rate increase scenario last month, a little ahead of the BoE:

Our monthly estimates of GDP suggest that output grew by 0.5 per cent in the 3 months to January, unchanged from the preliminary ONS estimate for the final quarter of 2017.

Amit Kara, Head of UK Macroeconomic Forecasting at NIESR, said “We estimate that economic growth was steady at 0.5 per cent in the 3 months to January. Activity picked up in the second half of 2017 after a period of subdued growth in the first half of the year. The recovery was driven by both the manufacturing and the service sectors, supported by a buoyant global economy, while construction output continued to lag.

We are forecasting GDP growth of close to 2 per cent this year assuming a soft Brexit scenario. At this speed the economy could start to overheat unless the Bank of England withdraws some of the stimulus that it has injected by raising the policy rate. Our forecast assumes a 25 basis point increase in May and then every 6 months until Bank Rate reaches 2 per cent by mid-2021. If instead, Brexit talks fail, the UK economy will in our view suffer a marked slowdown with damaging longer term consequences.”

unquote

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 14:09

US futures now positive!

[grahamite2] 09/2/2018 13:55

I just hope Barnier is serious. There should not be a transition period. We voted to leave, let's get on with it.

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 13:47

When Barnier is making these speeches, he is not talking to the British Government or MPs, but to the population at large.

What he is saying is "Ignore all the noise coming from the UK Government regarding deals, there will be no deal unless ABC is agreed." A problem he has is that he is no more coherent about the EU's formal position than Theresa May is about the UK's. The point must come soon when both sides stop grandstanding and set-out their red lines. But as we know from Obama, red lines are not necessarily drawn with a ruler. They may include 'u-turns'.

[polar fox] 09/2/2018 13:00

Graham,

An industry guy was just interviewed on 231 on the politics. He first described the Express as a "rabid" pro-Brexit paper, but then said "strident" might be a better word! Obviously, the Mirror is the opposite, as you say and we all know. So he sees the Express gradually moving from the right to the left, something that will be dictated by Trinity. Assuming that is how it pans out, the Express will be changing sides, it would appear. Quite what that will eventually mean, is anybody's guess.

Listening to Barnier, speaking at length, by himself, you can't help feeling that a slow-motion car crash is underway and the UK may be heading for an exit in March next year WITHOUT a transition period.

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 12:56

US futures have turned south.

Could be a difficult afternoon for the bulls.

[leedskier] 09/2/2018 12:49

RBS is being tent pegged.

[grahamite2] 09/2/2018 11:50

The news about the Mirror buying the Express has been out for months.

I understand the need for synergies, especially when print is under such pressure - outside the London commuter belt, where people want something to read on the train, how many people under 80 still buy a newspaper? But I don't see how the editorial side will work. The ethos of one is diametrically opposed to the ethos of the other.