RBS to wind down retail, commercial banking business in India

British banking major RBS on Friday said it is exploring other options for winding down its retail and commercial banking businesses in India, after a proposed sale of these assets to HBSC fell through.

However, there would be no impact on RBS' markets, international banking and private banking businesses in India which will continue to offer products to corporate, financial institutions and wealth management clients, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group said in a statement.

RBS had announced a deal more than two years ago in July 2010 to sell its Indian retail and commercial banking operations to HSBC.

However, the deadline for the proposed transaction lapsed on Friday without the requisite conditions for the deal to be met.

RBS said, "The India Retail & Commercial business is less than 0.5 per cent of the RBS Group's remaining Non-Core assets. RBS will continue to wind down the Retail & Commercial business in India in an orderly way and is exploring options for this."

The UK-based banking major further said it will also reduce the loan portfolios "in line with the stated group policy of running down non-core assets".

But there will be no immediate change for customers, who will be notified of any changes impacting them in a timely way and to minimise disruption, it added.