Royal Bank of Scotland’s plans to sell 300 branches may be in trouble after it failed to agree a price with Spanish bank Santander, according to the BBC on Wednesday.
RBS now has a little over a year to find a buyer for the 315 branches, which must be sold as part of the terms of the bank’s 2008 bailout.
The bank tried to get around the obligation by assigning them to their spin-off bank Williams and Glyn, but were beaten by heavy costs associated with the plan.
According to the BBC, talks with frontrunner Santander broke down over a marked difference in price. Although Santander may still be interested, they want a significant reduction on the £1.6 – £1.9 billion price range given by RBS.
RBS (LON:RBS) is currently trading down 1.20 percent on the news, at 181.50 pence (1033GMT).
