TUESDAY, 12.30PM
BRITISH-based National Westminster Bank is reviewing its joint venture operation in South Africa with the Board of Executors.
The review is part of the bank’s restructuring of its global securities operations, moving the most profitable treasury and foreign exchange operations into a separate arm, Global Financial Markets.
Press reports indicate that BoE Natwest chief executive Tom Boardman will meet Natwest Markets executives next month to discuss the SA company’s position in Natwest’s global economic strategy. Boardman said: “Somewhere along the line the little pieces of the puzzle in SA will fit in. But right now we don’t know where. The only discussions that have taken place have been for us to ask them to please give us clarity on the strategy as soon as they can so we can push on and do whatever’s got to be done.”
BoE Natwest executive director John de Villiers said it has been business as usual. “I think they [Natwest] are reviewing their strategy around the world and certainly from what we can understand they are rationalising their operations in South-East Asia, but as far as SA is concerned they are definitely still here,” he said.