RBS starts shutting down branches, to retrench staff
British banking major RBS will be laying-off some of its 1,000 employees as it winds down retail and commercial business in the country.
“As part of its winding down plans for the R&C (retail & commercial) business here, RBS India has reviewed its operating model and this will unfortunately lead to a number of job losses,” it said in a statement.
It, however, did not specify the number of people who will be laid off. The bank has nearly 1,000 employees in India. RBS India had a deposit base of Rs 13,039 crore and an asset book of Rs 12,534 crore as of March 2012, while its NPAs stood at 0.74 per cent.
The India operations account for a meagre 0.02 per cent of the RBS Groups assets and around 0.5 per cent of its non-core business. RBS had sold its Asian assets to Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp to comply with the bailout norms recently. Its troubles started after being bailed by the British government in 2008 due to the global credit crisis.
RBS has 36 branches here after it got the Indian assets of ABN as part of a three-way split of the Dutch bank, after it was acquired along with Banco Santander of Spain and Fortis of Belgium. RBS had announced sale of these businesses with 36 branches to HSBC over two years back, but the deal did not fructify owing to regulatory uneasiness.
Around one month back, private sector lender YES Bank evinced interest in picking up the business. But nothing has moved ahead since then. The Hindujas-promoted IndusInd Bank was also reportedly keen to buy out RBS branches her.
Interestingly, one of the driving factors mentioned by YES Bank for the deal was the strength it gets through the trained employees. “The affected employees are being informed over the coming days and will be treated fairly and in line with RBS policies,” the statement said, adding the preferred banking division, frontline sales and some from Van Gogh preferred Banking will be impacted following this.
The bank’s customers will continue to be served, it said, adding that they will be “notified of any changes impacting them in time to minimise disruption.”
RBS’ other businesses in the country, including markets, international banking and private banking, will continue to operate, it added.
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