InvestorDaily is reporting that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Australia is in discussions to sell its reverse mortgages business.
According to ID, its parent company conducted a strategic review earlier this year and decided now was the time to sell all non-core retail businesses outside of the United Kingdom (UK).
“We’ve got a sales process that is drawing to a conclusion,” RBS Australia director of reverse mortgages Martin Lynch said. “We have short-listed three parties now and hope to announce a decision in a month,” he said.
Lynch said that when ABN AMRO originally launched the reverse mortgage business in 2005 it was built with the view to build scale and then sell it. The company has been able to build RBS into the largest reverse mortgage provider in Australia and the only one who caters to financial planners and brokers.
RBS inherited the reverse mortgages business when RBS Group bought Dutch bank ABN AMRO as part of a consortium in 2007.
An RBS Australia spokesperson said no other parts of RBS Australia would be sold as a result of the strategic review.
