Deals

RBS launches PPP department(2)

The Scottish bank has appointed Vivek Sapra to head up the department, following the suspension of its project finance loans last month

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Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has set up a new department to lend to public private partnerships (PPPs), with Vivek Sapra at the helm.

The details of Sapra’s new role are still “in limbo”, according to banking sources. They say he will rejig the bank's approach to providing long-term financing for PPPs following its announcement last month that it would no longer offer project finance loans.

Earlier this year RBS reported the largest-ever annual loss in British corporate history totalling £24.1 billion (€27 billion; $34.4 billion) for 2008. In response, the UK agreed to pump as much as £25.5 billion more into the bank and insure £302 billion of its assets: a move that could result in the company being 95 percent owned by the government.

RBS declined to comment.