Santander joins the rush to buy bank assets

The forced sell-off of over 900 high street branches and other assets has attracted dozens of potential bidders, including existing lenders and new entrants seeking to capitalise on a regulatory drive to increase competition.

The first major lot to come to market is expected to be more than 300 branches being sold by part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland in its race to get back to business as usual and limit potential damage from a drawn-out sale.

Nationalised lender Northern Rock, which completed its restructuring earlier this year, is expected to follow.

RBS was told by EU regulators late last year to sell RBS-branded branches in England and Wales and NatWest branches in Scotland in return for receiving government support, but has four years to do so.

"The policy of Banco Santander is to take advantage of opportunities," Santander chairman Emilio Botin said at the opening of the first Santander-branded British branch.

He added the group would also continue its "very significant" organic growth.