Nationwide publicly declared its interest in snapping up 316 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland as it was hit with a £238m bill for past follies. Britain’s biggest building society said the acquisition would help meet its target of gobbling up 10 per cent of the current account market. It added that ownership of the branches would also ‘fit logically’ with its plans to start lending to small and medium-sized businesses by 2014. RBS was forced to sell the branches as a condition of receiving a £45bn bail out.
But a £1.65bn deal struck with Santander two years ago fell through last month