Nearly six years after the financial crisis, the sins of the past still weigh heavily on the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Bailed out by the British government in 2008, the bank said on Monday that it would set aside nearly 3 billion pounds, or about $4.97 billion, to cover potential litigation claims related to mortgage-backed securities and other products sold before the financial crisis. The new provisions, on top of more than £4 billion in charges announced in November, are expected to drag the bank into a deep loss for 2013 when it reports results next month.
Eight top executives of the bank — the British government holds an 81 percent stake in it — will not receive bonuses for 2013 as a result, the bank said. Its chief executive, Ross M. McEwan, who took the reins in October, has already said that he will not take a bonus for 2013 and 2014.
“We have to show we take accountability seriously,” Mr. McEwan said in a conference call with journalists Monday evening.
The charge is the latest setback for the chief executive as he tries to change the bank’s culture and prepare it for private ownership.
“Billions of pounds have been spent to resolve conduct and litigation issues in recent years,” Mr. McEwan said. “Costs on this scale were not predicted by anyone when R.B.S. was rescued in 2008. They come in addition to the costs of restructuring the bank’s bad assets and restoring its funding to prudent levels after the financial crisis.”
A little more than a week ago, Deutsche Bank reported its results earlier than expected, saying it had posted a loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.64 billion) related to costs for litigation and revamping.
R.B.S. said it would take a £1.9 billion ($3.1 billion) charge for potential claims related to mortgage-backed securities and other securities litigation in the United States.
It is among the banks being investigated by the Justice Department over mortgage sales and is the subject of a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency over mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. JPMorgan Chase in November agreed to a $13 billion settlement with authorities over its role in the mortgage crisis, a deal seen as a possible template for others.
Additionally, the bank also said it would take a £465 million ($766 million) provision to cover claims related to improperly sold payment protection insurance, a contentious insurance product that has cost British banks billions of dollars in claims.
The bank also will set aside another £500 million to cover claims related to so-called interest rate hedging products sold to small businesses. The bank had previously reserved £1.25 billion to cover claims related to those interest-rate products.
Last year, the bank said that it planned to create an internal “bad bank,” known as R.B.S. Capital Resolution, to manage about £38 billion in troubled assets, including real estate loans made at the height of the housing bubble for properties now worth a fraction of the value.
The bank reiterated that it expected to report impairments and asset-valuation adjustments associated with that strategy in the range of £4 billion to £4.5 billion in the fourth quarter. It will report its results on Feb. 27.
“R.B.S. is still paying a heavy price for past misconduct. So too are its customers and taxpayers,” said Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee.
Mr. McEwan has said he wants to change the culture of R.B.S., which received £45 billion from the British government during the financial crisis five years ago, and repay the government as quickly as possible. But he has had to navigate a series of bad news and poor luck as he tries to turn around the bank.
The Financial Conduct Authority, a British financial regulator, is reviewing the bank’s lending practices after two reports last year criticized its treatment of small and medium-size business clients, including claims the bank pushed some business clients into serious financial difficulties.
Other misfortune has struck the bank, too. A computer malfunction in December left customers unable to pay with their debit or credit cards on cyber Monday, one of the busiest online shopping days of the year. Then, Nathan Bostock, the bank’s chief financial officer, resigned after less than three months on the job to join Banco Santander’s British unit.