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After much interest was expressed regarding the possible purchase of 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches, which the company has been forced to put up for sale by the European Union, it looks as though we are finally down to the last serious bidder. It is believed that Spanish financial giant Santander is the only remaining bidder and is set to table an offer of between £1.7 billion and £1.8 billion.

If these indications are correct it will be slightly below the £2 billion indicative offer earlier this year and will indeed be slightly disappointing for Royal Bank of Scotland. However, when you consider that many of the former front runners have fallen by the wayside, any sale for around £1.7 billion or £1.8 billion would be welcome. This will allow Santander to increase its presence in the UK which already takes in Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and the savings division of Bradford & Bingley.

There is no doubt that Santander has been targeting the UK market for some time now, picking up well-known assets at relatively “cheap prices”. The company was also able to escape part of the public outcry against the UK banking arena by rebranding a number of banking operations under the “Santander” banner.

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