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LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC Sunday said it is winding down its interest-rate trading operations due to tougher capital requirements under regulators' efforts to make banks safer.
The move affects the state-controlled bank's prime broking and over-the-counter clearing businesses for rates.
"We are winding down the rates prime broking and rates over-the-counter clearing businesses as a result of the increasing level of capital, operating costs and investment that would be required for our business to be globally competitive in a market with extremely thin margins," an RBS spokesperson said in a statement.
Since the financial crisis, international regulators have worked together to demand that banks hold higher levels of capital to support their investment banking operations and lending.
The regulatory framework has seen both RBS and Barclays PLC reveal plans to scale back their international operations and increase their focus on UK retail banking.
Fixed income, currencies and commodities - the traditional source of most trading profit in investment banking - has come under pressure as a result of higher capital requirements and the historically low interest rates currently set by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, while derivatives products are increasingly being pushed to clearing houses.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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