Royal Bank of Scotland parent of Coutts, the UK private bank, is reviewing its expansion in Singapore and may put on hold its plans to open two more branches and hire 25 per cent more front-line staff, according to a local newspaper report cited by Reuters.

RBS received a licence from Singapore's central bank to enter the retail banking market in September. The bank said then it would add two more branches to the current six, the Business Times reported.

“We will be reviewing our expansion plans to take into account current economic conditions,” said Ajay Mathur, RBS head of retail banking. RBS, which expects a 2008 loss of up to £28 billion ($40.54 billion), has been hit hard by the credit crisis, and is reviewing its operations and may sell some assets.

Singapore has been one of the hotspots for wealth management in recent years and a number of Western banking groups have set up operations to tap the growth in the number and wealth of high net worth citizens in the jurisdiction.