RBS 2011 Annual Report Download - page 35

RBS Group 2011 33
In the Report and Accounts, and unless specified otherwise, the term
‘company’ or ‘RBSG’ means The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc,
‘RBS’, ‘RBS Group’ or the ‘Group’ means the company and its
subsidiaries, ‘the Royal Bank’ means The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and
‘NatWest’ means National Westminster Bank Plc.
The company publishes its financial statements in pounds sterling (‘£’ or
‘sterling’). The abbreviations ‘£m’ and ‘£bn’ represent millions and
thousands of millions of pounds sterling, respectively, and references to
‘pence’ represent pence in the United Kingdom (‘UK’). Reference to
‘dollars’ or ‘$’ are to United States of America (‘US’) dollars. The
abbreviations ‘$m’ and ‘$bn’ represent millions and thousands of millions
of dollars, respectively, and references to ‘cents’ represent cents in the
US. The abbreviation ‘€’ represents the ‘euro’, the European single
currency, and the abbreviations ‘€m’ and ‘€bn’ represent millions and
thousands of millions of euros, respectively.
Certain information in this report is presented separately for domestic and
foreign activities. Domestic activities primarily consist of the UK domestic
transactions of the Group. Foreign activities comprise the Group's
transactions conducted through those offices in the UK specifically
organised to service international banking transactions and transactions
conducted through offices outside the UK.
The geographic analysis in the Business Review, including the average
balance sheet and interest rates, changes in net interest income and
average interest rates, yields, spreads and margins in this report have
been compiled on the basis of location of office - UK and overseas.
Management believes that this presentation provides more useful
information on the Group's yields, spreads and margins of the Group's
activities than would be provided by presentation on the basis of the
domestic and foreign activities analysis used elsewhere in this report as it
more closely reflects the basis on which the Group is managed. ‘UK’ in
this context includes domestic transactions and transactions conducted
through the offices in the UK which service international banking
transactions.
The results, assets and liabilities of individual business units are
classified as trading or non-trading based on their predominant activity.
Although this method may result in some non-trading activity being
classified as trading, and vice versa, the Group believes that any
resulting misclassification is not material.
International Financial Reporting Standards
As required bythe Companies Act 2006 and Article 4 of the European
Union IAS Regulation, the consolidated financial statements of the Group
are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting
Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board
(IASB) and interpretations issued by the IFRS Interpretations Committee
of the IASB as adopted by the European Union (together ‘IFRS’). They
also comply with IFRS as issued by the IASB.
RBS Holdings N.V. (formerly ABN AMRO Holding N.V.)
In 2007, RFS Holdings B.V., which was jointly owned by the Group, the
Dutch State (successor to Fortis) and Santander (together, the
“Consortium Members”) completed the acquisition of ABN AMRO Holding
N.V.
On 6 February 2010, the businesses of ABN AMRO Holding N.V.
acquired by the Dutch State were legally demerged to a newly
established company, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., which on 1 April 2010 was
transferred to ABN AMRO Group N.V., itself owned by the Dutch State.
Following legal separation, RBS Holdings N.V. (formerly ABN AMRO
Holding N.V.) has one operating subsidiary, The Royal Bank of Scotland
N.V. (“RBS N.V.”), a fully operational bank within the Group. RBS N.V. is
independently rated and regulated by the Dutch Central Bank. Certain
assets within RBS N.V. continue to be shared by the Consortium
Members.
On 19 April 2011, the Group announced the proposed transfers of a
substantial part of the business activities of RBS N.V. to the Royal Bank.
Subject to, among other matters, regulatory and other approvals and
procedures, it is expected that the transfers will be implemented on a
phased basis over a period ending 31 December 2013. A large part of the
transfers is expected to have taken place by the end of 2012.
On 17 October 2011, the Group completed the transfer of a substantial
part of the UK activities of RBS N.V. to the Royal Bank pursuant to Part
VII of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Approximately 98% of the issued share capital of RFS Holdings B.V. is
held by the Group.
Presentation of information