RBS prepares for Brexit move of billions of pounds of assets

LONDON: Royal Bank of Scotland is advancing plans to move billions of pounds worth of assets to the Netherlands next March if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal.

The state-controlled bank said it had applied to the courts to move 6 billion pounds ($7.67 billion) of assets and 7 billion pounds of liabilities to its Dutch subsidiary NatWest Markets N.V.

The transfer of all the assets and liabilities will take place in March unless a deal is reached with the EU, and then could "be more gradual and subject to further political developments", the bank said.

The proposed plan impacts about 30 percent of NatWest Markets' customers who are located in the European Economic Area.