Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is, reportedly, in preliminary talks to sell its US retail banking arm, RBS Citizens, to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group of Japan.
According to people familiar with the discussions, the chances of a successful deal are less than 50%.
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RBS spokesman was quoted by The Walls Street Journal as saying that the bank remained focused on launching an initial public offering (IPO) for RBS Citizens and plans to unload all of RBS Citizens by the end of 2016.
The sale of Citizens will allow RBS to clear its finances and be in line with increased regulatory pressure to build their core capital to meet any new financial crisis.
According to analysts, the planned IPO will raise around $10bn for RBS.
RBS Citizens has $122bn worth assets and around 14,000 branches across 12 states in the Northeast and Midwest.
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