RBS pulls plug on Japanese trading to cut costs

Loss-making Royal Bank of Scotland took the axe to its trading arm in Japan as it continues to cut costs.

The state-backed bank plans to pull out of fixed-income trading in the Asian country and cut staff back to less than 50 from around 200 people, according to Bloomberg.

RBS Securities Japan is expected to give up its primary dealership and RBS executives are said to be due to meet with Financial Services Agency officials in Japan this week to detail the closure plan.

RBS is likely to notify clients once this has approval and its reduced operation will just focus on servicing clients in the region.

It is not the only company to scale back in Japan. Citigroup is selling its retail-banking business to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial while UBS Group recently recorded a loss in the region.

After six years of annual losses, RBS chief executive Ross McEwan plans to slash around £1 billion of costs at the taxpayer-backed lender. This month it hoisted the For Sale sign over its private bank, Coutts International, which includes the Queen as a customer.

This is said to have attracted interest from Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Malayan Banking.

Goldman Sachs is handling the sale of the bank which manages $36 billion (£22.97 billion) and is valued at around $1 billion.

First-round bids for Coutts are expected by Christmas.