LONDON — The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Monday that it was in talks to sell its structured retail investor products and equity derivatives business.
The bank announced plans in June to sell the business as part of a plan to scale back its investment bank and focus on retail and commercial banking in Britain, its home market.
R.B.S. said it was in discussions with an unnamed party about a possible sale of the unit.
“No agreement has been entered into and there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached,” R.B.S. said in a statement. The bank did not say how much it was seeking for the unit and declined further comment.
The bank remains 81 percent owned by the British government after it received billions of dollars in a bailout during the financial crisis. The bank announced this year a broader plan to sell assets and cut jobs to appease regulators and the British government.
R.B.S. said this month that it would separate about 38 billion pounds, or $61.3 billion, of troubled assets into a separate “internal bad bank” within the company. The decision came after a government review over whether R.B.S. should be split up.
The bank also has announced plans to move up the initial public offering of its Citizens Financial Group unit in the United States to the second half of 2014.