Overseas briefs: RBS selling off Coutts, UK banks agree to allow post office access, India tightens 31 March 2015 4:36PM Banking Day staff The Swiss private banking sector will undergo further consolidation after the Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) agreed a deal to buy the non-British business of Coutts from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), reports Swissinfo. RBS said it expected the handover to be completed by the end of the year subject to regulatory approval, which includes UBP getting a bank license in Hong Kong. Neither bank disclosed the price to be paid for the CHF32 billion (US$33.4 billion) of assets under management. UBP would only say that estimates in some news media, which ranged from US$600 million to US$800 million, were too high. Britain's retail banks have signed a pact - under government pressure - to allow all their small business and personal customers to do banking at their local post office by the end of the year. The Mail on Sunday reports the deal was confirmed last week and comes in response to the growing problem of communities being left bankless by widespread branch closures. Last year more than 470 bank branches were closed and 210 are earmarked for closure this year. The Reserve Bank of India has revised regulations for non-banking finance lenders by directing them to get themselves rated by March 2016. In the revised regulatory framework on NBFCs, RBI said those asset finance companies failing to achieve investment grade ratings by the deadline should not accept fresh public deposits or renew existing ones. European and US banks axed 59,000 jobs last year as they restructured and cut costs. Headcount is expected to shrink further in Europe as banks strive to improve profitability that has been hit hard by tougher regulation. According to Reuters, lenders have also sold or shut businesses to narrow their focus to avoid falling foul of regulators concerned that some have become too big and complex. Eighteen of Europe's biggest banks cut a combined 21,500 jobs last year, but that was less than half of the 56,100 jobs cut by the same banks in 2013, according to data compiled by Reuters. To keep the economy from falling below its seven per cent growth target this year, the People's Bank of China has cut interest rates twice since November. China's economy grew 7.4 per cent in 2014, its slowest pace in 24 years. The country's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned on Sunday that the country needs to be vigilant for signs of deflation and said policymakers were closely watching slowing global economic growth and declining commodity prices. Forbes Business News says that Zhou Xiaochuan has warned that inflation is declining "too quickly".