Santander / RBS Deal Off

Midzone

Laura Kuenssberg from ITV News reporting that the deal is off. Santander pulled the plug saying 'IT issues were biggest obstacle'. More to follow.....

jen245

There will be some very happy RBS customers!

innovate

That is terrible news for RBS, and therefore for all of us taxpayers. RBS won't be able to find another buyer before the deadline (end of 2013), so that probably means a hefty fine, plus they'll have to start the whole process again.

Unless Santander are just bluffing, to negotiate a lower price?

anotherbaldrick

Perhaps the Government will now have to take over the private banking arm of RBS as well.

colin79666

BBC are reporting it now. Expecting an official announcement from RBS soon.
"Royal Bank of Scotland's proposed sale of 318 branches to Santander is understood to have collapsed." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19929376

alanq

When the Lloyds / Co-op deal was in trouble it was said that a possible fallback position would be spinning off the assets and then listing them on the stock market through an IPO. If all else fails presumably this would also be an option for RBS.

What about Tesco? It had a long relationship with RBS and wants to extend its banking operations. 318 new Tesco Metro / Bank branches? (Shame that Metro Bank brand is already taken!)

I never understood what was in it for Santander who already has a branch (in some cases many branches) on most High Streets. If people wanted to use Santander they had plenty of opportunity. If they didn't then many would leave. The prolonged uncertainty can only result in fewer and fewer customers staying with the affected branches.

BASFORDLAD

Think a lot of people will be happy

alanq

As customers perhaps - but Santander will be replaced by A. N. Other.

As tax-payers certainly not.

innovate

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

Think a lot of people will be happy

jen245 wrote: »

There will be some very happy RBS customers!

They won't be very happy for very long if more taxpayer money has to be sunk into RBS. Or if the RBS systems collapse again because RBS can't afford to properly fund their IT systems.

IrishGypsy

Doesn't surprise me one little bit as I had worked in the software testing team and witnessed first hand just how complex this whole integration was becoming (and, personally, I fully expected it all to crumble when the 'switch' was due to happen - whenever that would have been - for reasons I'll not go into, but there where many).

It's a shame in a way, as Santander sank a TON of resources (money and man-hours) into trying to make it all work together, and they were doing a damn good job for the most part, but quite a few factors were against them in making this happen.

opinions4u

All those people who transferred their accounts to Scottish branches!