The British bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), through its subsidiary Coutts Bank, is to acquire the private Swiss bank Bank von Ernst, which belongs to the German bank HypoVereinsbank (HVB), for 323 million euros.

The sale of Bank von Ernst is part of the divestment policy being pursued by HVB, which recently sold its consumer credit subsidiary to DZ Bank and is also trying to dispose of another of its private banks: BethmannMaffei.

In addition, Royal Bank of Scotland has just purchased the Irish bank, First Active, which specialise in mortgage lending.