Royal Bank of Scotland has posted one of the weakest set of results for a fixed-income driven investment bank, according to one analyst who has questioned whether its markets division “can realistically deliver decent returns in a future ring-fenced world”.

The UK bank also warned in its first quarter results, which it published this morning, that revenues from its markets division - which forms part of its Markets & International Banking unit - were hard to predict and would likely have "a muted year overall". The UK bank's markets unit posted a steep decline in total revenues of £1bn, down from £1.7bn a year ago.