Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Australia is in discussions to sell its reverse mortgages business and has closed it to new clients.
The sale comes after its parent, RBS Group, conducted a strategic review earlier this year that led to the decision to sell all non-core retail businesses outside the United Kingdom (UK).
"We've got a sales process that is drawing to a conclusion," RBS Australia director of reverse mortgages Martin Lynch said.
"We have short-listed three parties now and hope to announce a decision in a month," he said.
Lynch, who is currently stranded in the UK following the eruption of an Icelandic volcano, said the sale of the business was a relatively straightforward process as it was originally set up to be sold over time.
"When ABN AMRO originally launched the reverse mortgages business in 2005 it was built with the view to build scale and then sell it," Lynch said.
RBS is currently the largest provider of reverse mortgages in Australia and the only one to use intermediaries, including financial planners and brokers.
RBS inherited the reverse mortgages business when RBS Group bought Dutch bank ABN AMRO as part of a consortium in 2007.
An RBS Australia spokesperson said no other parts of RBS Australia would be sold as a result of the strategic review.
