The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is selling its structured products business in The Netherlands.

Following last week's announcement, RBS said that it will transfer its exchange-traded products in The Netherlands - including turbos, Royal AEX Bonds and Memory Coupon Notes - to a business unit managed by its markets division which will subsequently be sold or otherwise disposed of through a settlement process.

"RBS intends not to continue with its structured retail investor products business, including exchange-traded products," said the bank in a statement. "RBS will continue to maintain a secondary market for all relevant products. We remain committed to meeting our existing obligations to our customers."

The announcement comes as a surprise as structured products at RBS accounted for a turnover of €4.8bn at NYSE Euronext Amsterdam in 2012 - representing a market share of 47% - leaving a gap that its competitors ABN Amro (€2.6bn/ 25%), ING (€1.6bn/16%), Citi (€313m/ 3%) and Commerzbank (€272m/ 2.6%) could try to fill.

Market rumours point at BNP Paribas as a potential buyer. The French bank gained a foothold in the Dutch market in 2012 with its Rendement Certificates which are issued at regular intervals in The Netherlands, while in neighbouring Belgium, BNP Paribas is already issuing turbos. Leveraged products from RBS are also available to investors in France and are listed on the Euronext Paris exchange.

Other buyers on the books include BinckBank, an independent online broker already trading leverage products such as turbos, sprinters and speeders from RBS and ING, for which it receives commission from the issuers.

However, as a result of the impending ban on kickback commission which will be implemented in January 2014, BinckBank will probably have to look for alternatives to compensate for loss of earnings.

BinckBank already has the in-house knowledge as it recently appointed Jean-Paul van Oudheusden, formerly head of investor products and equity derivatives for Benelux, as business manager at the bank's retail unit where he will be responsible for business management and product development.

RBS said that for the time being, the exchange-traded products business will continue to issue products as usual.