RBS starts shutting down in India, to lay-off 1,000

RBS will be laying-off some of its 1,000 employees  as it winds down retail and commercial business in India.

The British bank 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 India has reviewed its operating model and this will unfortunately lead to a number of job losses," the bank said in a statement.

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 percent 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.

"The affected employees are being informed over the coming days and will be treated fairly and in line with RBS policies," the statement said.

For more.