The sale of Royal Bank of Scotland�s Asian assets is progressing after reports that talks have begun with Standard Chartered.

The sale of Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets is progressing after reports that talks have begun with Standard Chartered.

Royal Bank, now 70%-owned by the taxpayer, is keen to divest much of its business in the region, which was largely acquired from its ill-fated purchase of ABN Amro in 2007.

But it does want to retain its Chinese investment banking operations.

"We are well advanced with the sale process, however, due to regulatory constraints and the confidentiality of the process, we will not comment on any individual bidders or elements of the transaction process until its completion," a Royal Bank spokeswoman said yesterday.

The Asian assets for sale include 28 branches in India, where Royal Bank has more than 1.3 million customers; 20 in Indonesia, where it has the largest foreign-owned bank network; and 17 in Taiwan, serving more than one million customers. Royal Bank has 13 branches in China.

Standard Chartered, a London-headquartered but Asia-focused bank relatively untouched by the banking crisis, confirmed in April it was interested in buying some of the assets, and is now understood to be in talks over Chinese, Indian and Malaysian parts of the business.

ANZ, Australia's fourth-largest lender, is thought to be in talks to buy Royal Bank units in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The Edinburgh-based bank, now 70% owned by the taxpayer, has put the assets up for sale as part of a programme of business sales in 36 countries in an effort to reverse its expansion in the overseas market overseen by former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin.

Shares in Royal Bank closed up 0.75p, or 2%, at 39.4p.