ZURICH, HONG KONG — J SAFRA Sarasin and a consortium of Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings are among banks short-listed for the second-round sale process of Coutts International, people familiar with the matter say.

The sale of the private bank of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has attracted about 10 suitors in the initial round, and could fetch about $1bn. No firm date had been set for the final bids, the people said, but all the short-listed parties had started due diligence inquiries.

DBS, which is mainly interested in the Asian unit of Coutts, has teamed up with French bank Société Générale, which could buy the European business.

Julius Baer and SA’s Investec have also made it to the next round, while a one source said Credit Suisse was also among the bidders short-listed. Spokespeople for DBS, Sarasin Credit Suisse, Investec, Societe Generale and Julius Baer declined to comment.

Coutts was founded in the 18th century and is best known for being the banker to the present Queen Elizabeth.

Under the proposed restructure, Coutts could be split into two businesses — one based in Britain and one in Zurich, from where it runs operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

About a third of the nearly $36bn in assets managed by the bank come from Asia.

RBS’s preference is to sell the business as one entity.

The sale comes as RBS is retreating from sub-scale businesses and markets.

Reuters