RBS sells US bank Citizens Financial
(2 November 2015 – Scotland) Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold its final stake in Citizens Financial, the US bank it bought in 1988, for US$2.6 billion (A$3.64 billion), moving it another step closer to privatisation.
RBS floated Citizens on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, raising $3.4 billion, and has collected a total of $8 billion in further share sales since then. That has been used to bolster its balance sheet and will eventually help to reduce the taxpayer’s outstanding 73 per cent stake in the U.K. bank.
The bank beat its deadline of December 2016 set by the European Commission to sell the remaining 20 percent stake of the U.S. lender in turn for its £45 billion (A$97.47 billion) bailout in 2009.
RBS chief executive, Ross McEwan said: “The completion of the sale of Citizens is a critical part of our capital plan. A strong capital position is the essential platform on which we will continue to build a simpler, stronger and more efficient UK-focused bank that can better serve the needs of its customers.”
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