Royal Bank of Santander – Santander look set to buy Royal Bank of Scotland
It seems Santander the Spanish bank that bought Abbey National are about to purchase 318 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland. Thus our cheeky headline “Royal Bank of Santander”
Santander put a £2bn offer in April and is set to acquire 318 high street branches from the Royal Bank of Scotland as the only bidder left in a sale process that ends this Tuesday.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is trying to shore up its books as the government prepares a scaled exit from its ownership. The bank recently made its debut in the covered bond market, where banks issue bonds backed up by their loan portfolio. The bank raised €1.25bn, after attracting €1.9bn of orders from investors.
Royal Bank of Santander part of the Santander growth
Santander have already acquired Abbey National, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester.It certainly looks set to become a large bank with a large appetite for UK success as it posted annual profits of £1.5bn in 2009, up 30% from 2008.
According to the Chairman of Santander “We expect a double-digit growth in Britain this year, pushed by a recovering economy through opportunities that may arise”
Do you think Santander is gaining to much strength in the UK? Are you a customers of Royal Bank of Scotland and had your accounts moved to Santander as part of the deal? Do you think it’s a fair deal?
Update: This completion date is now thought to be more likely in the early part of 2012 as both banks work through the complicated process of transferring customers between the two operations. Santander is experienced in this area, having taken over Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in addition to the Abbey National acquisition that announced the arrival of the Spanish bank on the UK high street.
Brussels and the two banks have completely ignored the fact that the customers have the right to decide with whom they bank. The letters from RBS announcing the branch transfers make no mention that the customers at those branches have right to stay with RBS. Its typical Eurofascism from Brussels.