Santander has been forced to deny it plans to exit the UK market due to red tape.
The Spanish-owned high street bank is in the early stages of exploring a number of strategic options, one of which is to exit the UK, according to multiple media reports over the weekend.
The review comes as the Spanish bank faces lower returns from its UK operations than in other major markets, including Mexico, Brazil and its Spanish headquarters. The group is led by Executive Chairman Ana Botin.
The company’s UK business has 14 million customers and 20,000 employees across nearly 450 branches. Its mortgage lending totaled £170.8 billion at the end of June.
Santander has exited the UK loan market two decades after it acquired Abbey National in 2004.
“The UK is a core market for Santander and this has not changed,” Santander said in a brief statement on Sunday.
However, Reuters quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that Barclays had earlier approached Santander over a possible offer for the UK business, but those talks did not lead to a sale as the two sides were unable to agree on a price.
