Royal Bank of Scotland Group is close to putting up RBS Asset Management for sale, a business which includes fund structures used by UK private bank Coutts, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.

RBS Asset Management, which specialises in the creation of credit, hedge funds, long-only and private equity funds of funds, managed $50 billion in assets at end-2008, according to the report. These funds, the news service said, mainly comprise funds managed on behalf of Coutts’ clients.

An investment banker from another firm was quoted by the news service as having said that in his view RBS Asset Management is unlikely to fetch more than £100 million ($163 million). But while this source doubted the attractiveness of the business, because fees on funds of funds tend to be low, another commentator - the chief executive of an asset manager - pointed to the “considerable cachet” of the chance of managing products for Coutts.

RBS declined to comment on the matter when contacted by WealthBriefing.

Earlier this month, Australia and New Zealand Group bought the retail, wealth and commercial businesses from RBS in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong as well as the bank's institutional operations in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, for a reported $550 million. Together the acquisitions represent 54 branches, two million affluent clients, $3.2 billion in loans and $7.1 billion in deposits.

RBS, which received a bailout package from the UK government, has been in the process of undertaking a strategic review of its businesses. The decision to sell RBS’s retail and commercial businesses across Asia – regarded as non-core assets – was announced February.

RBS has previously told this publication that it is not contemplating a sell-off of its wealth management operations.