HSBC in advanced talks on buying RBS Asia assets

HSBC is in advanced talks to buy the Asian retail and commercial
banking assets of Royal Bank of Scotland as a Standard Chartered bid
for the lender has stalled over the price, a report said Wednesday.
The discussions involve HSBC taking over RBS's interests in China,
India and Malaysia, the Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed source
close to the situation as saying. 'RBS is in on-going discussions
with bidders for the remaining assets it has decided to sell in Asia
and will make further announcements, as appropriate, in due course,'
RBS spokeswoman Yuk Min Hui was quoted by the paper as saying.
HSBC and Standard Chartered were unavailable for comment. The news
comes after the Financial Times last month said that plans by RBS to
sell its Chinese assets to Standard Chartered had run into problems
and looked set to fail. It also follows comments by HSBC head
Michael Geoghegan that he planned to delay any rush to expand the
bank because of concerns there will be a second economic downturn in
the coming months. RBS is majority-owned by the British
government after being ravaged by the credit crunch. Caption People
walk into the London headquarters of Britain's state- controlled
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). HSBC is in advanced talks to buy the
Asian retail and commercial banking assets of Royal Bank of Scotland
as a Standard Chartered bid for the lender has stalled over the
price.