ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reached out an out of court settlement with three of the five shareholder groups pursuing action against the state-backed lender over its £12 billion rights issue of 2008.

And the bank, which said the three groups represented 77 per cent of the total claims by value, revealed it is now pursuing settlement with the two other groups. The trial for those claims are due to begin in March, with the bank declaring that it will “vigorously” defend the action in court if a settlement cannot be reached.

RBS has set aside £800 million to cover the claims, having already made such provision in its accounts.

It said it settled the action from the three shareholder groups without any admission of liability.

Chief executive Ross McEwan said:  "We have been very clear that we wanted to deal with as many of our legacy litigation issues as possible during 2015 and 2016. We are pleased to have reached this agreement and hope that it will be accepted by the remaining claimant group(s) so that this long course of complex and costly litigation can now be concluded.”