Santander teeing up new bid for W&G

SANTANDER UK is lining up a new bid to buy Williams & Glynn from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Santander was on the verge of paying £1.2bn for the bank in 2012 but abandoned its plan, but has been preparing another move since late in 2015, according to reports.

RBS was told by the European Commission to set up the new bank under the terms of the 2008 bailout.

But it has struggled to carve out the 316 branches, 1.8 million customers and 250,000 business accounts and launching a new IT network has been very costly, and looks likely to miss its deadline of the end of 2017.

RBS has spent £1.2bn so far to split out Williams & Glynn.

According to Sky News, Santander UK has now put together an early-stage offer for Williams & Glynn.

However, Santander UK’s boss Nathan Bostock has played down the bid for W&G, dismissing discussion of a purchase as “market speculation”.

RBS is not commenting on the reports.