* RBS chairman Davies tells AGM banks can cope with bad
loans
* Crisis makes further state share sales soon unlikely -
Davies
* Bank remains 62% owned by taxpayers following 2008 bailout
(Adds further quotes, context)
By Iain Withers and Sinead Cruise
LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland
said on Wednesday it was doing what it could to offer
government-backed loans to businesses being hammered by the
economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
Chairman Howard Davies made the comments after banks have
been criticised for not getting cash to struggling companies
quickly enough.
Speaking to investors at the bank's annual investor meeting
- held over webcast to comply with social distancing rules -
Davies said the bank would try to build loyalty with businesses
by providing funding lifelines.
"(Customers) then remain loyal to you because they have a
good memory of the people who stood by them when times were
tough," he said.
The government has tasked Britain's banks with delivering
more than 330 billion pounds ($410.4 billion) worth of
state-backed loans to struggling businesses, but many firms have
found support hard to come by and the application processes
unwieldy.
RBS had approved around 7,400 so-called 'CBILS' loans to the
value of 1.4 billion pounds as of April 23, the most of any
British bank. The bank had also delivered 3.1 billion pounds of
support to larger businesses under a separate scheme, it said.
Davies said the sharp fall in RBS's share price during the
crisis made it unlikely the government would sell further stock
in the state-backed bank soon.
STARK IMPACT
RBS - which is rebranding itself NatWest at group level
later this year - remains 62% owned by taxpayers after its 45
billion pound bailout in the 2008 financial crisis, which was
followed by years of scandals for mistreating customers.
Chief Executive Alison Rose said the bank was doing "more
than any other" in this crisis to deliver the government's
support schemes.
"Every person, family and business has been affected by the
current situation and the group have been doing all we can to
support our customers and the communities we serve and will
continue to do so long after this first phase of response has
ended," Rose said.
Davies warned the outbreak had "changed everything" and its
impact on society and the economy would likely be "stark and
long-lasting".
The country's largest banks – including RBS – are announcing
first quarter results this week, with Barclays and HSBC
already setting aside billions of pounds to cover an
expected spike in bad loans due to the economic impact of the
outbreak.
Davies said an increase in impairments across the industry
was an "inevitable part of recession" but said banks were well
capitalised and able to cope.
He said the bank was committed to returning capital to
investors in time, after the company scrapped dividends until
next year at the earliest following pressure from the Bank of
England on lenders to conserve capital.
All of RBS's resolutions passed in proxy voting conducted
for the AGM.
($1 = 0.8041 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers and Sinead Cruise; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
