Santander to swoop in banks' branch sell-off

All change: rebranding of Santander's branches has already begun around London

11 April 2012

Santander today gave its first clear indication that it wanted to buy up bank branches being sold off by Northern Rock, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

It was expected that Spanish giant Santander, owner of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester, would be prevented from for significant numbers of the hundreds of branches. Gordon Brown wants to see strong newcomers arriving to spur competition against high street giants.

Santander is already in the big league, with about 11 per cent of the mortgage, current account and savings market through 1,300 branches.

But its chairman, Emilio Botin, today said in London that the bank would "take advantage of opportunities" amid the sale of British rescued assets.

The declaration effectively pitches Santander head-to-head against Virgin Money and National Australia Bank's Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks in the bidding. Tesco is also widely expected to get involved, although it publicly says it will pursue a go-it-alone strategy.

Branches for sale will include 318 from RBS, 90 Northern Rocks and 600 Halifax and Cheltenham & Gloucesters.

Simon Maughan, banking analyst at brokerage MF Global, said: "This could indicate that Santander has pretty strong reasons to believe that any attempts to block it from bidding for these branches will be overturned in Europe.

"The British regulators have been rushing around making announcements and stipulations on the banking industry without any consideration of EU law. Perhaps Santander reckons those laws will back them up."

Mr Botin was speaking as he unveiled the first Santander-branded bank branch in central London, where he added that the outlook for the group's British business was "very, very positive".

The changeover of the fascias begun in some outlying parts of London in the past few days as part of a rebranding that Mr Botin said would cost the bank about £30 billion this year.

Abbey customers have for months been reminded of the forthcoming changeover in branches and on the telephone banking lines.