Yorkshire Bank's owner in rival bid

Clydesdale Bank Plc – which owns the Clydesdale and Yorkshire brands – said it made an offer to take over Royal Bank of Scotland’s Williams & Glyn business, after Spain’s Banco Santander SA called off discussions last month.

The move by Glasgow-based Clydesdale could end a costly seven-year process by RBS to offload Williams & Glyn, after it was ordered by the European Union to sell it as a condition of its taxpayer-funded rescue at the peak of the global financial crisis.

The RBS said in a statement: “We continue to explore options in meeting our obligations to the European Commission.

“We have been clear that there is interest in the business and this remains the case.”

European regulators originally ordered a sale of Williams & Glyn by 2013 to prevent RBS, Britain’s largest small-business lender, from having an unfair advantage and posing a systemic threat to its economy. RBS has blamed complexities for the delays.