Bank to appoint Davies as chairman

RBS says it hopes to resume paying dividends to shareholders next year as it reports a £3.5billion loss for 2014.

The bank says it turned an operating loss of £7.5bn to a profit of £3.5bn last year, and losses are largely due to a £4bn writedown on its Citizens bank in the US and £2.2bn of conduct costs.

RBS has abandoned plans to make its investment bank profitable and will now slash it by two-thirds leading to "substantial" overseas job cuts.

It has appointed as its next chairman Sir Howard Davies, who chaired the Financial Services Authority in the run-up to the financial crash.