Royal Bank of Scotland starts to dismantle global empire
After news that the Royal Bank of Scotland is actively seeking buyers for its Pakistan division many are now predicting the dismantling of the global empire which pushed Royal Bank of Scotland into the top league of banking companies around the world. While the division itself is only worth around £180 million it is more the fact that the company appears to be actively seeking to sell off global assets and concentrate on the UK business.
As we are all aware, Royal Bank of Scotland is now majority-owned by the UK taxpayer after taking billions upon billions of pounds of taxpayer's money to save the business. Part of the deal which saw UK taxpayers take in excess of 70% of the issued share capital appears to have been the agreement to dismantle the worldwide empire. While the Conservative party has recently suggested it would look towards reducing the presence and power of UK banks, it would appear that the Labour Party is actively pursuing this through its role as government of the UK.
Whether this is just a short-term measure, and we will see UK banks return to a growth phase in the future, very much remains to be seen but at this moment in time the UK banking sector is in danger of being demoted from the top league of worldwide banks.
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