Restructuring, litigation costs push RBS to 2-billion-pound loss

London (dpa) - Restructuring and litigation costs pushed the Royal Bank of Scotland to a loss of nearly 2 billion pounds (2.8 billion dollars) last year, its eighth consecutive annual loss, the bank said on Friday.RBS stocks plunged 9 per cent in early trading in London following the results, despite the bank saying it had "delivered against its 2015 targets.""RBS continues to deliver on its plan to build a strong, simple and fair bank for both customers and shareholders," it said.It reported "elevated restructuring costs" of 2.9 billion pounds and "litigation and conduct costs" of 3.6 billion pounds as "further steps were taken to clear legacy obstacles from RBS‘s path to normalization.""Our pace of progress has resulted in a set of financials that are noisier than any of us would like, but it has resulted in a much stronger and simpler bank, with a much clearer investment case," said Ross McEwan, RBS‘s chief executive."We are delivering our eighth consecutive quarter of capital ratio growth," McEwan said. "We are becoming much simpler, taking 983 million pounds of costs out of the business this year and over 2 billion pounds in the last two years."In January, the bank said it planned to set aside another 2.5 billion pounds to "clean up" liabilities for mis-sold insurance and claims related to mortgage-backed securities in the United States.The government announced plans last year to sell its majority stake in the bank, which it bailed out during a financial crisis.RBS reported a loss of 3.5 billion pounds in 2014 as it continued to streamline its international business and refocus on Britain, down from a loss of 9 billion pounds in 2013.