RBS to sell off its Pakistan bank

[blackwater 007]

The Royal Bank of Scotland is closing in on a deal to sell its operations in Pakistan, as part of the lender's attempts to shed many of its Asian businesses.

The Edinburgh-based bank is reported to have agreed the sale to Faysal Bank in Pakistan, owned by Bahrain parent company, Ithmaar.

A previous deal to sell the division to MCB Bank fell through when it faced regulatory hurdles in Pakistan.

RBS Pakistan employs about 5,000 staff.

It has 75 branches in 24 cities and was bought by the Scottish bank as part of its disastrous purchase of Dutch lender ABN Amro in 2007.

Other similar assets have been sold off across Asia, while RBS retreats to its core business, in Britain, the USA and in major financial centres.

An announcement is expected next week.

 

[blackwater 007]

Sad to see another foriegn bank leaving Pakistan. Hope Govt will do something..

 

[TaimiKhan]

Sad to see another foriegn bank leaving Pakistan. Hope Govt will do something..

There is nothing the govt can do about it, as this has nothing to do with govt policies or law & order situation, rather it is the policy of the bank to concentrate on areas of its strength and where there is big money.

In Pakistan, they had a small operation setup and as per SBP rules, all banks have to with passage of time increase their presence as well as increase their paid up capital requirements so that all the banks are strong enough and in case of any economical shocks, they can resist them and survive and the confidence of depositors isn't shaken and they don't cause problems like bankruptcy or other things.

ABN-AMRO was increasing its presence and even had bought another small local bank, thus increasing its branches to over 100 in Pakistan from just 5-6 initially.

But as RBS took over, they as per their policy, don't want to come to Asian countries or may be in other words not the countries which are not attractive money wise, as in Pakistan to earn money, they would have to invest also in infrastructure and human resource, thus it would be a time consuming process.

So, in the end, it has nothing to do with Pakistan or its policies, rather its their own vision to confine to specific areas.

 

[xenia]

A previous deal to sell the division to MCB Bank fell through when it faced regulatory hurdles in Pakistan.

the deal was so cheap,it could be called ridiculous..RBS was about to b sold for peanuts..
HSBC opened a new branch last year, Barclays is here..seems we r not running short of banks..

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Actually due to tough competition there Operations could not foster ..!!!

 

[pak-marine]

Not in PK only RBS did the same in other countries as well , they bought abnamro right when the credit crises happned

 

[Hyde]

Sad to see another foriegn bank leaving Pakistan. Hope Govt will do something..

Sad for those who does not know anything about RBS bank.

RBS or Royal Bank of Scotland suffered heavy losses during recession and they decided to shut down all their overseas branches to once again stand on their own feet. They shut down branches from all over the countries around the globe and only concentrating on UK banks once again.

They have already sold their shares on most of the overseas countries and MCB bought their shares in Pakistan that later on could not obtain licence within the time scale and now RBS is no longer bound in that contract and is back for another auction.

Its not RBS is leaving Pakistan - Its RBS closing down all branches overseas

 

[Patriot]

MCB will most likely take over RBS.MCB is too big now so there might be some issues but MCB has a lot of cash to buy RBS.There are too many banks in Pakista- MCB, HBL, NBP, SCB, Askari Bank, FWB, Alflah, Dawood Islamic Bank, Al Faysal Bank, Elite Bank, UBL, CSB, NIB etc..

 

[WAQAS119]

@blackwater 007: As all the members have explained you the reality so need for me to explain again. But i just wana say that this thread is a prime evidence of your ill-information, lack of knowledge, and pathetic mindset.

 

[T-Faz]

Sad to see another foriegn bank leaving Pakistan. Hope Govt will do something..

What an indian thing to do, you people should stick to your call centres, RBS incurred heavy losses and was saved by the government, one of the conditions set was that it raises capital by selling off its international branches while only retaining 5% of each international branch. This would allow others to operate under the RBS as a form of franchise and RBS would recite their policities.

Shame how without any knowledge or even little know how of what the article indicated, you jumped to make yourself happy by writing utter nonsense about Pakistan.

Tells you all, doesn't it.

 

[SpArK]

Banks, commods fall; FTSE hits near nine-month low

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares fell heavily early on Tuesday, as anxiety mounted on the fiscal state of the euro zone and growth concerns knocked commodities and banks.

By 0756 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 124.05 points, or 2.5 percent at 4,945.56, having fallen to an eight-and-a-half month low in opening deals.

Sentiment in Britain echoed that on Wall Street overnight as anxiety about Europe's response to the Greek debt crisis, concern about swelling debt in other euro zone economies and the bailout by Spain's central bank of bank CajaSur on Saturday, combined to slam confidence. UK banks fell across the board as jittery investors worried that the problem in Europe may be deeper than first feared.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Barclays (BARC.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) fell 4.2-4.5 percent.

Euro zone debt contagion weighed on Asian markets which were also hit by worsening tensions between North and South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered his military to be on a combat footing, contributing to a 3.6 percent slide for Asian stocks outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS. [ID:nSEW002195]

"The big game-changer overnight has been the geopolitical tensions in Korea, which has taken the wind out of the sails and added to this toxic cocktail," Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown said.

Hunter added that the problems in Korea combined with Europe's debt crisis could begin to impact demand and growth from Asia and India, initially seen as immune to Europe's issues.

COMMODITIES FALLING

Miners retreated in tandem with metal price as the outlook for demand clouded over.

ENRC (ENRC.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.L), Xstrata (XTA.L) and Lonmin were down 3.2-5.1 percent.

Crude CLc1 also fell, down 2.3 percent, with oil majors BP (BP.L), BG Group (BG.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) off 2.1-3.3 percent.

BP is exploring a new way to siphon off oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico if current plans to plug the leak this week fail. [ID:nLDE64O04Q]

The FTSE is down more than 15 percent since fears escalated about the euro zone sovereign debt crisis in mid-April. It is down 8.7 percent this year after a 22 percent gain in 2009.

Prudential (PRU.L) dropped 3.7 percent after its shares fell on their Asia debut on Tuesday, hit by the global sell-off and concerns over shareholder support for the British insurer's planned purchase of AIA, the industry's biggest acquisition.

Marks & Spencer (MKS.L), Britain's biggest clothing retailer, was down 2.5 percent after it said it was cautious about the outlook for consumers ahead of expected tax rises as it met forecasts with a 4.6 percent rise in annual profit.

UK GDP grew slightly faster than initially estimated in the first three months of this year after a strong rebound in industrial production and business services, official data showed.

The Office for National Statistics said Britain's economy grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, up from an initial estimate of 0.2 percent, though slower than the 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a median rise of 0.3 percent for the quarter.


Banks, commods fall; FTSE hits near nine-month low | Reuters

 

[Musalman]

RBS never wanted to enter Pakistani market. They had to come in coz they bought ABN AMRO bank. However, what is strange is why Barclay Bank entering Pakistani market. They entered Pakistani market when our economy was going down. Never made any sense to me. They started from scratch in Pakistan, while other banks usually take over branches of other banks.

With regards to Blackwater comments, his sole intention was to finger Pakistanis a troll actually

 

[shiningindia]

i think pak govt. should change the policy for the foreign bank...

 

[WAQAS119]

^hahaha, OK I will consider your opinion..lol