Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC said Friday that operating pretax profit nearly halved in the first quarter as impairments against bad loans soared during the coronavirus pandemic, and warned of uncertainty over its outlook for the full year and medium term.

Operating pretax profit was £519m pounds ($649.8m) in the first three months of the year compared with £1.01bn in the year-earlier period, the U.K. lender said. The bank was hit by increased impairment charges of £802m due to the effects of the pandemic, compared with impairment losses of £86m a year before.