The Royal Bank of Scotland posted a pre-tax profit of 1.1bn pounds for H1 of 2010. This more than favorably compares with a profit of 15m pounds for H1 of 2009.

Compared with a loss of 248 m pounds for the first quarter of 2010, RBS saw a net profit of 257m pounds during quarter 2. This is a complete turnaround from last year when the bank experienced a loss of 1bn pounds for H1 of last year.

RBS has also increased its total UK mortgage balance by 20 per cent in quarter 2 of 2000. With this increase it returned to profit adding 2.4bn pounds to its portfolio.

The increase of mortgage holdings also saw RBS help more than 10,000 first time buyers, compared with just 4,800 during the same period (Q2) of 2009.

RBS had a goal to achieve 8bn pounds mortgage lending for the March 2010 to February 2011 period. With net lending of 3.2bn pounds between March and June 2010, the bank is on course to attain the company’s target goal.

Although the mortgage market has shown some signs of weakness for the second quarter of 2010, with applications down 20 per cent compared to last year, acceptance rates are at a stable number of 90 per cent.

Stephen Hester of RBS said: "RBS Q2 results show that the bank remains on track to meet the far-reaching goals of our five year restructuring plan which commenced last year. Our customer base is solid and I believe that the future potential of RBS for all its constituencies becomes increasingly visible. The rebuilding of RBS is a marathon and not a sprint. I am pleased with the steady momentum in our core customer-facing businesses."

RBS recently passed the EU stress test.