This is what’s in the news for Thursday March 1, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports Royal Bank of Scotland Group (NYSE:RBS) is close to announcing a preliminary agreement on the sale of its Asian assets to Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings. The Wall Street Journal also reports Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) is moving towards changes requiring many users of basic checking accounts to pay a monthly fee unless they agree to bank online, buy more products or maintain a certain balance. Reuters reports Ford Motor (NYSE:F) CFO Lewis Booth said the automaker may lose up to $600M in Europe this year as the ongoing debt crisis affects overall sales there. Bloomberg reports U.S. homes in or close to foreclosure made up about 25% of residential purchases in the last three months of 2011 as lenders approved more short sales, where the price is less than the amount owed, according to RealtyTrac. Finally Bloomberg also reports ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) chip designs are used in most smartphones and now the company will power the networks that run them as it increases competition with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) in the $9B market.