Clydesdale Bank has confirmed that
it has made an offer for Williams & Glyn, the banking business that
Royal Bank of Scotland failed to sell to Santander.
Clydesdale said it had been in talks with RBS and had made a "preliminary non-binding proposal" for the business.
However, the bank said talks were continuing and there was "no certainty" that a deal would be struck.
RBS has been ordered to sell the business by the European Commission.
That order related to the bank's £45bn government bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
European
regulators had originally demanded that the sale of Williams & Glyn
should be completed by 2013 to prevent RBS, the UK's largest lender to
small businesses, from having too dominant a position.
Clydesdale said: "A transaction will only be pursued if it is
determined by the board to be in the best interests of CYBG [Clydesdale
Bank] shareholders."
Santander abandoned plans to buy the business from RBS last month, with reports saying the two sides could not agree on a price.
The
Williams & Glyn brand disappeared in 1985 after being replaced by
the RBS brand. The resurrected Williams & Glyn business will have
300 branches and about 1.8 million customers.
Shares in Clydesdale Bank fell 0.6% to 270.4p on Wednesday, but have risen almost 44% since it floated in February.
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