Troubled RBS branch sale could 'drag on until 2016'

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Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland could miss the deadline at the end of the year to sell 316 branches by more than two years.

One of the bidders has warned that the sale, known as Project Rainbow, could drag on until 2016, according to the Daily Mail. W&G Investments, made up of 25 blue-chip UK investors, is proposing to buy the branches for an initial £1.1bn. It said: ‘It is possible that separation will not be achieved within the two-year period currently contemplated.' W&G also said that it was setting a four-year deadline - after which RBS would have to repay any money W&G had already put down. Three parties have submitted bids to take on the branches, with a preferred bidder likely to be announced...

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