UK state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported £3.5bn loss for the previous year, down from £9bn loss for 2013, says BBC.
A £4bn writedown on the sale of its US business Citizens hit the results.
RBS said it had reduced costs by some £1.1bn and will cut another £800m this year.
It is cutting back its corporate and institutional banking network from 38 countries at the end of last year to 13, which will mainly be in the UK and western Europe.
The bank's CEO Ross McEwan said he would not receive a bonus this year. However, RBS will still pay out bonuses from a pool of £421m, which is some 21% smaller than in 2013.
Mr McEwan described it as "fair pay" and said it was necessary to pay bonuses to attract people to carry out "fairly technical jobs."
The bank is 79%-owned by the British taxpayer after a government-led rescue in 2008.
British Chancellor George Osborne has written a letter to the new chairman of the bank, Howard Davies, saying he expected the bank not to give bonuses to senior executives, saying "I would also expect that, as in the past, no executive directors or members of the executive committee will receive bonuses, despite improved profitability."
"Given the extraordinary support it has enjoyed in the past from taxpayers, I know you recognise that RBS must remain a backmarker on pay and continue to show responsibility and restraint."
