RBS doubts Santander reason for scrapping $3.2b deal

TOKYO (REUTERS) - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chairman Philip Hampton cast doubt on Saturday on the official reason given by Spain's Banco Santander for its surprising decision to pull out of a £1.65 billion (S$3.28 billion) deal to buy 316 of the British bank's branches.

Spanish bank Santander said it was proving too difficult to carve out the RBS branches from their parent company, and that it was not prepared to wait longer, more than two years after it struck a deal with RBS.

Mr Hampton, however, raised the possibility that other factors might have been at play.

"People have speculated that it's not an easy time in general for banks to take on a lot of risk-weighted assets," he said.