Winding down retail, commercial operations

Royal Bank of Scotland Plc has announced that it will close 23 of its 31 branches in India as part of a “strategic business decision” to “consolidate” its retail and commercial banking business in the country. The process will start with the closure of branches in Agra, Jodhpur, Jalandhar, Kolhapur, Mangalore, Shastri Park (New Delhi) and Udaipur. “This will be followed by consolidation or closure of the other branches that are not part of the eight business hubs,” RBS said. The closures will be completed by the end of the calendar year. It will be left with eight branches in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Vadodara. “RBS has already written to all affected clients in the exit branches informing them of this change. Customers are being given two months notice in line with regulatory requirements in which alternate banking arrangements will need to be made,” the bank said. The announcement follows its failure to sign a proposed deal with Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. to sell its Indian retail and commercial banking businesses in 2012. RBS has shrunk both deposits and advances in India in the last few years as it prepared to sell part of its business to HSBC. From Rs.189.11 billion in 2007-08, the bank’s deposit base fell to Rs.130.39 billion in 2011-12. Advances fell from Rs.203.81 billion to Rs.125.34 billion during the same period.