UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may be in the process of selecting advisers for the sale of their insurance unit. Previously, the company had been considering a public listing rather than a trade sale. This unit of the RBS Group has to be disposed of as part of the rescue package extended by the European Union when the bank ran into trouble during the global financial meltdown.

International insurance company, Aviva, has recorded a 21 percent increase in operating profits in the first half of 2010. Aviva is also in the midst of discussing significant structural changes to their profit sharing joint-venture with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which comes shortly after their deal to be the exclusive provider of life protection insurance products with Santander in the UK. Aviva…