Royal Bank of Scotland may offer a multi-million pound dowry to bidders for its stockbroking business in its bid to secure a sale, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The newspaper said the high salaries earned by bankers in corporate broking arm Hoare Govett and other parts of the equities division could mean that closing it could cost tens of millions of pounds.
As a result, RBS could offer to pay one of its rivals to take the loss-making business off its hands, the paper said.
It said an announcement on the future of the bank's equities arm, which includes its Hoare Govett corporate finance brand, could come as early as this week.
RBS has hired investment bank Lazard to advise it on a scale-back of its investment banking arm, including options to sell parts of the business, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters recently.
Bank of China and Japan's Mizuho Financial are among the banks eyeing parts of RBS, sources told Reuters on Friday.
RBS, 83% owned by the British government after a bailout during the 2008 credit crisis, is expected to scale back in equities -- potentially selling the UK advisory and broking business Hoare Govett.
On Sunday, a spokesman for British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said it had replaced Hoare Govett with Citi as one of its brokers towards the end of last year.
A report on RBS in the Sunday Telegraph said the bank's Global Banking and Markets division, which houses the investment banking activities, was expected to be merged with the safer Global Transaction Services as part of the overhaul.
A spokesman from RBS declined to comment on the reports.