Bank of Scotland has reported a half year loss of £1.4 billion. The bank, of which 84% is owned by taxpayers, is set to cut around 2000 jobs in the next 12 to 18 months in an effort to cut costs and increase profit. RBS has already cut 27,500 jobs since the start of the financial crisis.

The bank had to take a £733 million provision for its exposure to Greek government bonds and also has had to allocate £850 million for mis sold PPI policies they will inevitably have to refund. The money is also there to cover the compensation they will have to pay consumers for PPI claims.

However, the bank also reported an improvement in its core operating profit to £1.7bn from £1.1bn in 2010. The British Bankers Association said RBS is on target to meet business lending commitments drawn up under the Project Merlin agreement with the Government.

Britain’s top five banks RBS, Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Santander UK have provided £100.4bn in gross new lending in the first half of the year, including £37.4bn to small businesses.

However reports from consumers have told of customers being forced by their banks to convert their overdraughts into loans to give the impression of new lending. There have also been customers who have had their loan accounts closed and re-opened giving the loans new account numbers and therefore being passed off as new lending.

This shows again the corrupt nature of the banks and the bankers. In order to meet government agreements they are simply re-issuing credit to fool us into thinking that they are meeting targets set by government. The fact that nobody in government has picked up on this suggests possible compliance on their part.