PRA casts eye over Clydesdale bid to buy Williams & Glyn

RBS has to divest of Williams & Glyn, and its network of more than 300 branches, by 2017 in order to comply with EU rule relating to its £45 billion state bailout deal carried out at the height of the financial crisis of 2008.

While previous deals have fallen though, Glasgow-based Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank (CYBG) has recently emerged as a buyer.

News of CYBG’s interest was reported last month and now, according to reports in The Sunday Telegraph, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is appointing investment bankers to advice on whether integrating Williams & Glyn’s computer systems could wobble the challenger bank.

The PRA, RBS and CYBG have all declined to comment.

A deal to sell the business to Santander in 2012 fell through because of IT problems.

RBS warned in its most recent quarterly results that it was unlikely it could divest of Williams & Glyn by the 2017 deadline it had been given.