RBS could be moving US$4-5b shipping loans to 'bad bank'

[LONDON] Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is reviewing its shipping loan business and is expected to place billions of dollars from the portfolio in the part-nationalised group's new internal "bad bank", sources familiar with the matter said.

The industry sources said the group's shipping exposure is being examined as part of new chief executive Ross McEwan's strategic review, the results of which are due in February.

Shipping has weighed heavily on its financiers, with the industry facing one of its worst downturns in decades. Ship owners ordered large numbers of new vessels between 2007 and 2009, just as the global economy ran into its biggest crisis since the 1930s.