The Royal Bank of Scotland is meeting with HM Treasury officials to look into ways the bank could exit the U.K.’s Asset Protection Scheme possibly as early as the end of this year. The APS is an expensive proposition for RBS, which is partly owned by the U.K. government, costing it £700 million ($1.12 billion) a year to protect the bank from losses on some £280 billion ($447.7 billion) in risky assets. The scheme is seen as not economical for RBS which under the plans still has to absorb the first £60 billion ($95.93 billion) of any losses on APS-insured assets, according to reports.

Click here to read the story from the Financial Times.