RBS chairman outlines plans for sale of insurance division
Royal Bank of Scotland Chairman Sir Phillip Hampton said today that the bank's insurance assets are to be sold in the second half of 2012.
In a speech at the Annual General Meeting with shareholders, he said: "RBS Insurance also had a difficult year, not helped by the terrible weather in the run-up to Christmas, but management actions are beginning to turn the business around and underlying profitability is coming back toward more acceptable levels."
The European Commission says RBS has to sell its insurance business, which includes Direct Line, Churchill and NIG, by 2013 under the conditions of its bail-out by the UK government in 2008.
The bank has been looking at selling or floating its insurance business, but has long said its preferred method of exit is flotation.
Earlier this month, RBSI rolled the underwriting arms of Direct Line Churchill and NIG into UKI to save costs ahead of Solvency II.
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