The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will give conditional approval to HSBC's proposed acquisition of select assets of Royal Bank of Scotland NV (RBS). The regulator will, in all likelihood, approve a portfolio sale, but is against an automatic transfer of RBS's branch offices in India to HSBC. HSBC would have to apply for new branch licences. In 2010, HSBC had agreed to buy the commercial and retail businesses of the erstwhile ABN Amro in India that RBS received as part of its share in a three-way split of the Dutch bank whose other business were acquired by Fortis of Belgium and Santander of Spain. "The RBI supervisory board discussed the details of the transactions and evaluated the regulatory aspects of the deal at its Jaipur meeting in October," said a source in the know of the development. An email query to the RBI went unanswered......
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