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RBS set to exit Asia corporate banking operations

LONDON — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is preparing to put most of its Asian corporate banking business up for sale, reports said yesterday, as the British government-backed lender seeks to focus on the bank’s domestic market to help reverse six straight annual losses.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is under pressure to help support the UK’s economic recovery. Photo: Reuters

The Royal Bank of Scotland is under pressure to help support the UK’s economic recovery. Photo: Reuters

LONDON — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is preparing to put most of its Asian corporate banking business up for sale, reports said yesterday, as the British government-backed lender seeks to focus on the bank’s domestic market to help reverse six straight annual losses.

Chief executive officer Ross McEwan, 57, was scheduled to hold a series of meetings in Singapore yesterday to consider ways to scale back the lender’s Asian business, Bloomberg reported an unidentified source as saying.

The bank’s 2,000 employees in the Asia-Pacific region could be affected by the withdrawal, Bloomberg said, citing the source. “RBS would probably keep some operations in Singapore offering clients dollar, euro and yen fixed-income products,” the source added.

RBS has an onshore presence in 11 countries across the Asia-Pacific and counts Singapore as one of its six global trading hubs, its website states.

Another option being discussed is selling assets by country.

A spokesman for RBS in Singapore declined to comment when contacted by TODAY.

Since taking over in 2013, Mr McEwan has been selling units and cutting jobs outside the United Kingdom.

RBS announced last month it was shutting its Japanese trading business after raising US$3 billion (S$4 billion) in September selling shares in its United States subsidiary, Citizens Financial Group. It also dismissed most of its team overseeing debt capital markets in central and eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa last year.

“This is consistent with its strategic plan to scale back a number of geographies in which it operates,” said Mr Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Jefferies International in London, which has a buy rating on the stock.

“Outside the UK, the company will continue to operate in some markets where it feels like it can generate appropriate returns and isn’t too much of a distraction for management,” he added.

RBS is 81 per cent owned by the British government following a £45 billion (S$90.8 billion) rescue operation after the financial crisis and is now under pressure to focus on loans to UK households and businesses and help support the country’s economic recovery.

It has undergone a major restructuring in order to pay back taxpayers funds and eventually return to private ownership, and is stepping closer to doing both after it posted a £1.3 billion quarterly profit recently.

The bank’s Asia-Pacific corporate and institutional banking division is led by Mr Pierre Ferland, who is responsible for a 10-country network offering clients foreign exchange, interest rates, fixed income, debt capital markets and transaction services, RBS’ website said.

Mr Ferland was appointed head of markets for the Asia-Pacific in 2008 after heading RBS’ financial institutions client coverage unit in London. Agencies

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