ANZ to announce review of retail and wealth business in Asia

ANZ will unwind part of its $US550m purchase of RBS assets by selling retail and wealth operations to Singapore’s DBS Bank.

ANZ has been reviewing its retail and wealth business in Asia

ANZ Bank will unwind part of its $US550 million purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland assets in 2009 by selling the retail and wealth businesses to Singapore’s DBS Bank.

The deal is scheduled to be announced this morning.

ANZ bought the RBS retail, wealth and commercial assets in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong in August 2009, along with the institutional businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The retail and wealth businesses are now regarded as non-core.

The announcement comes after ANZ shares were placed in a trading halt pending an update on the review of its Asian operations.

The local banking giant (ANZ) said it planned a 10.30am (AEDT) release “relating to the outcome of the bank’s review of its retail and wealth business in Asia”.

The review launched by ANZ in May is seen likely to lead to divestments and could unravel the group’s $500 million-plus purchase of retail and commercial assets across the region from RBS in 2009.

The announcement is planned ahead of ANZ’s full year earnings report, due on Thursday morning.

Australia’s fourth largest lender last week said it will book charges of $360 million against its full-year profit, just two months after it said it had already made provisions of $1.4 billion so far in its financial year.