Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is close to selling its Indian business to HSBC after nearly a year of negotiations. HSBC will reportedly buy only the retail and SME operations of RBS and will be given some branches.
The bank, in which the UK government owns around 83% stake, may also shortly sell its investment banking arm in Chile.
The Edinburgh-based bank?s business in India is one of its biggest foreign operations with 1.3 million customers, 28 branches and 1,800 employees. The HSBC management in India refused to comment.RBS had only recently completed the re-branding of its India operations after it acquired ABN Amro Bank. Sources say the deal with HSBC has taken time to fructify because RBI was reluctant to hand over all RBS branches in the country to HSBC. It is possible, they say, that RBS is keen to retain some branches, especially those in the metros, as also the corporate and treasury operations.