RBS to shut its retail banks in India

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has confirmed it is to shut its retail banking branches in India. This has not come as a surprise and the bank has already begun selling its outstanding loans in the country: DBS Bank buying a INR 10bn ($150.3m) loan portfolio from RBS, and in October last year RBS sold $1bn of external commercial borrowings of Indian firms to National Bank of Abu Dhabi. 

MUMBAI: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will start shutting down its ten branches in India as it exits from the country following an announcement in February 2015.In a press release on Monday RBS said the closure of the branches will be done in a phased manner and the bank has already started informing customers to shift their local accounts from the British lender.The branch closures are not a surprise. In February 2015 the bank announced that it will shut down operations in the country as part of a global reshuffle to cut costs and improve returns for shareholders.It has already started selling its outstanding loans in India. In March, Singapore based DBS Bank bought a Rs 1,000 crore loan portfolio from the bank as it decided to sell its business in parts rather than at one go.“After examining a number of options for our banking business in India, we decided to wind down our corporate, institutional and retail banking businesses in India. We are now in a position to initiate a phased exit of our retail bank branches in India,” a RBS spokesman was quoted as saying the release.Earlier in October. RBS had sold $1 billion of external commercial borrowings (ECBs) of Indian companies to National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).RBS’ ten functional branches in India employ 650 people. It also had a global back office called RBS Business Services Pvt. Ltd, which has another 7,100 employees. Its main businesses include institutional and corporate banking business.