Spain's Santander said today it will take over the retail deposits and branches of Bradford & Bingley for a reported £400 million ahead of the British bank's expected nationalisation.
A spokesman for Santander, which owns British bank Abbey and is in the process of buying Alliance and Leicester, said: "The retail deposits and branch network will be taken over by Abbey, details of which will be revealed later."
Sky News said Santander would pay £400 million ($730 million) in the deal, which is said to include B&B's 200 branches and savings worth about £22.2 billion held by 2.5 million customers.
Media reports suggest that the bank's loans, worth £50 billion and including £41 billion of mortgages, would then be nationalised.
Finance minister Alistair Darling is expected to make a statement before the markets open later today.
The move would see B&B become the latest casualty of the global financial crisis that has forced governments worldwide to intervene.
As the Santander deal was announced, US lawmakers agreed on the details of an unprecedented $700-billion-bailout for struggling Wall Street banks to avert the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments also mobilised to help troubled financial group Fortis yesterday, agreeing to inject 11.2 billion euros, Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said.
Over the weekend, officials from the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority watchdog and the Bank of England met to try to secure the future of B&B, which has also suffered from a prolonged property market downturn.
