Shares in RBS were up on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading ahead of the part-nationalised bank's full year results, expected tomorrow.

Last November the bank reported a fall in bad debt provisions in the third quarter to less than two billion pounds. However the group also said that revenue from its Global Banking and Markets arm had reduced substantially from the previous year.

Despite this and a possible hit from exposure to Ireland's recent financial troubles RBS is expected to announce a return to full year profitability tomorrow.

Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said ahead of the results, "Lower overall provisions are expected to assist, with a return to a full year pre-tax profit of £1.7 billion forecast on a consensus basis, a rebound from the £2.59 billion pre-tax loss recorded for 2009."

By 15:10 shares in RBS were up 0.06 per cent on the FTSE 100 to 47.75 pence per share.

FTSE