RBS set to give up on sale of W&G

RBS looks set to abandon plans to sell off its Williams & Glyn brand following the Government’s proposal for the state-owned bank to deliver a series of initiatives worth around £750m to boost competition in the UK business banking market.

RBS has been struggling to find a buyer for small business lender W&G after being ordered by the had the European Union to sell the unit by the end of 2017 to address competition concerns.

The sale of W&G to Santander fell through last year and talks with Clydesdale Bank have also failed.

RBS chief executive Ross McEwan said the new plan would deal with the bank’s EU obligations “more quickly and with more certainty than undertaking a difficult and complex sale”.

The Williams & Glyn brand disappeared from the high streets in 1985 after being replaced by the RBS brand. However W&G continues to be an important lender for SMEs.

The Williams & Glyn business would have had its headquarters in Manchester, with 300 branches and about 1.8 million customers.

The EU ordered RBS in 2009 to dispose of Williams & Glyn as a result of its £45bn government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

European regulators had originally demanded that the sale should be completed by 2013 to prevent RBS, the UK’s largest lender to small businesses, from having too dominant a position.

Spanish bank Santander abandoned plans to buy the business from RBS in September 2016, with reports saying the two sides could not agree on a price.