OTTAWA: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the country’s largest lender, has placed its Asian wealth management divisions under review with a view towards a possible future sale. According to Reuters – citing people close to the matter – the review has been prompted by the bank’s Global Head of Wealth Investment, who feels the Asian business, which holds $10 billion in assets, lacks scale. “There will definitely be a question mark over profitability of this kind of a business that lacks scale,” the source told Reuters. “Is it a core business for RBC in Asia? The answer is, probably not.”
Despite Asia-Pacific being one of the fastest growing wealth regions in the world, many banks are peeling back their services there to save costs. A crackdown on money laundering in many of the region’s prime banking centres has meant many banks are having to fork out for compliance technology. Regional players DBS Group and OCBC could be among those looking for a deal with RBC, according to the sources.
