QuickBooks & WorldPay news

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland has set an early April deadline for potential buyers of its payment processing arm and more than 300 bank branches, people familiar with the matter said. RBS, 84 percent state-owned after it was bailed out by the UK taxpayer at the height of the credit crisis, was ordered last year by EU antitrust regulators to sell these and a …

LONDON (Reuters) – Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) has set an early April deadline for potential buyers of its payment processing arm and more than 300 bank branches, people familiar with the matter said.

Taking payments online is hardly a new thing, but it’s still a question I get asked a lot by businesses.

By Clara Ferreira-Marques and Sudip Kar-Gupta

Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Agricole , two of Europe’s biggest banks, said prospects were brighter for this year after their annual results bore the scars of the financial crisis.

Royal Bank of Scotland is confident it will push on with asset sales this year, with its payment processing arm due to be sold off by the end of 2010, and a similar timeframe targeted for a deal on bank branches.

By Clara Ferreira-Marques and Sudip Kargupta

Europe’s banks showed the scars of the financial crisis on Thursday as Royal Bank of Scotland posted a big loss as bad debts jumped and Credit Agricole was hit by losses in Greece, but both said prospects are brighter for this year.

By Clara Ferreira-Marques and Steve Slater

Royal Bank of Scotland shrank its 2009 operating loss to 6.2 billion pounds, still one of the largest European banking losses for the year, despite a jump in bad debts which the bank says may now have peaked.