RBS to close Indian business

Royal Bank of Scotland’s sale of its Indian retail and commercial banking operations to HSBC has fallen through, and it will now wind down the business, it announced today.

RBS agreed to sell the business to HSBC in July 2010, but the deal lapsed on Friday. It has 31 branches and 400,000 customers, with assets of £190m and revenues of £42m in the first months of this year.

“Consistent with RBS’s strategic objective to reduce or exit its non-core assets and businesses, it will begin to wind down its retail and commercial banking business in India, whilst meeting all customer obligations,” RBS said in a statement.