Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to shutter some operations in Korea, Indonesia and Singapore will not affect its wealth management business Coutts, WealthBriefingAsia can confirm.

The Edinburgh-based lender said yesterday it will begin closing cash equities, equity capital markets and corporate finance units in Korea, as well as cash equities operations in Indonesia and Singapore. Around 70 jobs will be impacted.

The UK government-backed bank is in talks with Malaysia’s CIMB Group to sell some of its Asia-Pacific assets, but these units will not be included due to “commercial reasons”, according to the bank.

A Singapore-based spokesman confirmed that the Coutts business in Singapore will not be impacted by the changes. The bank has no wealth management operations in Korea and Indonesia.

It will also continue to operate debt financing, transaction services and risk management in Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and eight other Asia-Pacific countries.  

RBS is in the process of a wide-scaling cost-cutting programme which will see it cut around 3,500 jobs at its investment banking unit and shutter businesses which lack scale.

LatAm, Caribbean, Africa

Royal Bank of Canada yesterday said that its global wealth division RBC Wealth Management will acquire the Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking business of Coutts.

The business has client assets in excess of $2 billion, RBC said in a statement. Terms of the transaction was not disclosed. The deal is expected to be close on the latter part of the second quarter of this year.

“This business represents an excellent opportunity to increase our market share with high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in key high growth markets while delivering very attractive returns,” said George Lewis, group head, RBC Wealth Management.

The business to be acquired includes clients who reside in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, as well as key private banking staff based primarily in Geneva, Switzerland and also includes a team in the Cayman Islands, RBC said.

“Our Geneva-based business has built a reputation for serving the often complex needs of emerging market clients,” said Karen Simpson, general manager and head of private banking, Royal Bank of Canada (Suisse) “This acquisition will enable us to increase our client base significantly in these three important target regions.”

Change of focus

Coutts said those businesses have total client assets of £1.5 billion (around $2 billion), accounting for only 2 per cent of all its assets.

The firm said the decision to exit the markets “follows a careful strategic review which was initiated earlier last year by Rory Tapner, CEO, Wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group”.

Coutts is concentrating on geographies including the UK, Switzerland, Middle East, Russia/CIS and selected countries in Asia.

“We have made substantial progress executing against our strategic growth plan over the last year, as evidenced by our recent financial results.  Our Latin American, Caribbean and African business is solid.  However, it requires further investment to reach our preferred market share and we have determined to focus our efforts on our core markets as mentioned above,” he said.

“In RBC Wealth Management, we have found a private wealth manager who is committed to growing their business in these markets over the long term,” he added.