Santander 'eyeing up takeover of rival UK bank' after major firm put up for sale

Santander has reportedly approached the owner of TSB about a potential takeover of the UK high street bank.

Sky News has cited City sources who claim that Santander has contacted Banco Sabadell, the Spanish parent company of TSB, about a possible takeover.

Sabadell confirmed earlier this week that TSB is up for sale and said it had received interest about an acquisition, but did not name who had expressed interest. Sabadell and Santander, also a Spanish bank, have so far declined to comment on the report.

TSB has around 175 bank branches in the UK, while Santander has 444 locations, but revealed plans earlier this year to shut 95 branches. The closures will leave Santander with 349 physical sites.

Sabadell said: “Banco Sabadell will assess any potential binding offer it may receive. Naturally, any transaction would be subject to the satisfaction of all legal obligations.”

The reports of its interest in TSB come after the executive chairman of Santander denied the high street lender was looking to the UK.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year, Ana Botin denied said Santander would remain in the UK “into the future”.

She said: “We love the UK. It’s a co-market and will remain a co-market for Santander. Punto [full stop].” The bank has been in the UK since it purchased Abbey National in November 2004.

Sabadell is currently in the middle of rebuffing a takeover attempt by Spanish banking group BBVA, a deal which is opposed by the Sabadell board and government in Spain.

BBVA has launched an €11billion (£9.4billion) move to take control of Sabadell. It comes a decade after Sabadell bought TSB for £1.7billion in the UK, a year after Lloyds had spun off TSB in a stock market float.

TSB recently reported a £101million pre-tax profit in the first quarter, nearly double what it made a year ago. Meanwhile, Santander has reported pushed back bids from NatWest and Barclays to buy its UK retail bank.

The Mirror has recently published a list of banks closing in June. There were 79 bank branches set to close for good this month, including 16 Lloyds branches, 15 Halifax, 24 Natwest, 23 Santander, and one TSB.

According to a report from the consumer group Which?, banks and building societies have closed over 6,300 high street branches at a rate of 53 per month over the last decade. This represents 64% of the branches which were open back in 2015.

Banks say the decline in high street branches has been driven by a rapid increase in online and mobile banking, and a rapid decline in the use of physical branches.