LONDON (Standard&Poor's) July 28, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS; A-/Negative/A-2) are unaffected by RBS' pre-results update, which indicates that operating performance has significantly improved during the first half of 2014. The preliminary interim results suggest a profit before tax of £2,652 million in the first half of 2014, up from £1,374 million in the same period last year. The improvement primarily stemmed from an 8% reduction in operating expenses (excluding restructuring and conduct costs) and an 81% decline in the loan impairment charge, to £269 million for the first half of 2014. The fully loaded common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio improved to 10.1% on
