RBS shoulders additional £450m in costs for IT meltdown and PPI

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland racked up another £450 million in charges today as it counted the mounting cost of its recent IT meltdown and the PPI mis-selling scandal.

The 80% state-owned bank took an extra £400 million hit in the third quarter to cover the cost of payment protection insurance mis-selling, bringing its total bill to £1.7 billion.

The cost of dealing with the fallout of the computer glitch that locked many RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers out of their accounts also rose by £50 million to £175 million.

The mounting provisions came as the bank, which has 30 million customers worldwide, unveiled a pre-tax loss of £1.3 billion, compared to a £2 billion profit in the same period last year.