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The Royal Bank of Scotland Breaks Nets
Renamed to the Royal Bank of Scotland July 21, once Russia’s bank ABN Amro closed yesterday three offices in Moscow and an office in St. Petersburg. It is the first time that a big western player rejects the retail business of Russia.
Offices of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Moscow and St. Petersburg were closed for technical reasons, their representatives said yesterday. One of employees of St. Petersburg office said they all were informed yesterday about the dismissal by initiative of employer. The given reasons were the need to trim costs that the new owner incurred when buying out the bank, and as a result, the decision to abandon retail business in Russia. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) paid $99 billion for ABN Amro.
Spokesman of Russia’s office of RBS was on vocation yesterday and knew nothing about the wind-up of Russia’s offices. Individual clients of the Royal Bank of Scotland were serviced only by its headquarters in Moscow, an office in St. Petersburg and an office in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk.
It is the first time on the market of Russia that a big player from the West rejects the retail business here. ABN Amro had launched the attempts to win a portion of Russia’s retail a bit more than a year ago, i.e. not long before its takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland. According to Rushunt, it announced a tender to employ 300 more for servicing individuals.
The bankers say that by closing the retail, RBS has revealed the conservative approach, which is so common to it. Indeed, this bank doesn’t deal with retail outside Britain. In RBS, they reasoned that the retail net of ABN Amro was insufficient to compete with other retail banks.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 06, 2008
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