IT seems like hardly a week goes by without Royal Bank of Scotland becoming embroiled in some form of controversy.

But it is hard to escape the feeling that momentum is finally building behind the bank, at least in terms of its underlying performance.

Royal Bank, which remains 71 per cent in the hands of UK taxpayers, made a third quarter profit of £392 million. It means the Edinburgh-based lender has reported profits for three quarters in a row for the first time since 2014.

That run has needless been helped by the bank’s progress in dealing with a multitude of legacy issues, which have weighed heavily on its ledger since being bailed out by the UK Government at the height of the financial crisis.

With the European Commission approving its remedies for its Williams & Glyn branch network, settling with the US Department of Justice over mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities is the last of the major legacy hurdles to overcome, albeit the scale of the fine it will have to pay is unknown. Once that is settled, the prospect of the government beginning to sell down its majority stake will not seem so remote, though the share price remains well adrift of the break-even point.

Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that everything in the garden is rosy.

After a recent flurry of negative headlines, which has seen the bank face renewed criticism over its treatment of small business customers, and allegations of sexual harassment, the lender, it could be argued, needs to engender some reputational, as well as continuing financial, rehabilitation.