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Santander able to bid for RBS assets
Spanish bank Santander has been cleared to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s business-focused branches when the bank’s assets are divested under plans being drawn up.
Competition rules agreed between London and Brussels will ensure that no purchase of the assets will push the buyer’s market share in the specific market past 15 per cent.
This means that Santander, with less than eight per cent of the UK small business lending market, will be able to bid for some of RBS’s 312 business-focused branches.
But the Spanish owner of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester will be limited to bidding for only a few of RBS and Lloyds Banking Group’s retail branches, as it already has a 14 per cent share of that market.