The sale and transfer of several bank branches from one UK banking giant to another was recently pushed back to be completed early in 2012.
Spanish banking group Santander’s buyout of 318 branches of the Royal Bank of Scotland is no longer expected to be completed this year but has instead been pushed to the first quarter of 2012. This is despite hopes that the transfer would have been completed by the end of this current year.
The personal and business bank account provider’s massive branch sale is one of the most complex integrations to be undertaken in the UK. RBS had been forced to relinquish the branches thanks to an EU court ruling in compensation for the £54 billion the bank received during the height of the worldwide banking crisis.
Initially announced in August of last year, the deal was expected to be completed by December of 2011. However the sale of the branches – which included seven NatWest branches in Scotland and 311 RBS branches in Wales and England -has been delayed due to the complexity of the process.
Santander has experience in large customer transfers such as when it took over Abbey National in addition to Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester. These acquisitions brought the Spain-based banking group to the UK’s high street.
In order to package up the branches that had been placed up on the auction block, RBS had re-created its Williams & Glyn’s brand for the occasion. However Santander is understood to be likely to replace this with its own signature red-coloured branding instead once the deal is completed.
RBS expects that the transfer will be complete by 2012’s first quarter.