Royal Bank of Scotland’s talks with Standard Chartered to sell its retail and commercial assets in China, India and Malaysia has hit a gridlock – reported Financial Times. It has been reported that StanChart was particularly disappointed to find that a greater number of RBS customers than it had expected were locked in to specific products, restricting its ability to shift them to alternatives.
A person familiar with the matter said: The mix is weighted more to structured products, which means any acquirer would have to wait longer to recycle those deposits. As a result StanChart is struggling to make the numbers [in China] work. The talks could regain momentum if RBS showed flexibility on the sale price.
RBS has said that it was in ongoing discussions with bidders for the remaining assets it has decided to sell in Asia and will make further announcements, as appropriate, in due course, reported the Daily Mail.
