RBS looks to offload China operations

Beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said on Wednesday that it may sell most of its banking operations in China, Reuters reported. The UK lender, which reported the largest annual loss in British history in 2008 and has been partly nationalized by the British government, sold its 4.26% strategic stake in Bank of China for US$2.34 billion in January. According to local media, business cooperation in areas such as private banking has also ended. RBS now plans to jettison the China-based retail and commercial banking businesses it acquired through its purchase of Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007. RBS said it considers China a core market and therefore intends to maintain ABN AMRO’s global banking operations in China as well as RBS’s representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai.