Santander confirms bid for RBS branches

Spain's Santander has made a bid for a network of UK branches being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland and has had conversations on merging its U.S. operations with M&T, its deputy chairman said.

RBS, 83 percent state-owned after it was bailed out in the financial crisis, is selling off 318 UK branches in a deal likely to be worth about 1.8 billion pounds.... "We've made an offer for the (UK) offices of RBS which fit like a glove. They fit strategically well with our UK operations" Matias Rodriguez Inciarte said at a conference on Thursday.

Inciarte also said the bank, the largest in the euro zone, had held talks to merge its U.S. operations with M&T Bank Corp, but declined to make any further comment. Last month, the Financial Times said talks were at an advanced stage before failing over a disagreement as to who would control the enlarged unit.