RBS under pressure to cut Coutts sale price

Royal Bank of Scotland may have to endure a cut price sale or shelve its plans to dispose of Zurich-based Coutts International due to recent scandals around tax evasion at Swiss banks.

Potential bidders for the wealth management arm have reportedly attempted to lower the price of the acquisition due to the scandal, which has already engulfed rival FTSE 100 banking group HSBC, according to sources cited by the Financial Times.

The paper believes that the group of potential acquirers has dwindled to include the likes of Credit Suisse, Union Bancaire Privee and a combination of Societe Generale and Singapore's DBS Bank.

A sale of Coutts had been predicted to reap RBS a premium to the division's recent book value of around 1.2bn Swiss francs (£0.82bn).

The bidders have apparently also cited the recently rocketing franc to force down the price as it was affecting profitability.

RBS is expected to whittle down the potential buyers to two and could reveals details of the sale in its results scheduled for next week.