Peter J. July, Group Chairman, RBTT Financial Holdings Limited, has announced that the Group recorded pre-tax earnings of US$145 million for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2007, an improvement of 5% over the corresponding period last year.  The profit attributable to shareholders of US$107 million was affected by a higher effective Group tax rate, which moved up from 21% to 25%, mainly due to changes to the tax legislation in one jurisdiction, increased provisions for tax assessments and higher taxable income generated by the retail banking entities.  As a consequence, diluted earnings per share moved down to US$0.31, compared with US$0.32 for the comparable period last year.