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Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc jumped more than 20% in early trading on Feb. 23 following reports that the troubled bank will create a new "bad bank" unit for its noncore assets and could place some £250 billion of toxic assets under the U.K. government's asset-protection scheme.
On Feb. 22, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph of London reported that RBS CEO Stephen Hester was readying plans to split the financial conglomerate in two by creating a new unit in which to place about £300 billion of its unwanted assets to be sold off or shuttered.
RBS, which is nearly 70% owned by British taxpayers, will also place "at least" £200 billion of bad assets into the U.K. government's...