TSB name could disappear from UK in Santander deal

The TSB name could disappear from UK High Streets after the British bank's Spanish owner announced its sale to rival Santander.

The £2.65bn deal still has to be agreed by the current owner Sabadell's shareholders but if it does go ahead, Santander said it "intends to integrate TSB in the Santander UK group".

The takeover would create Britain's third largest bank by share of personal current accounts.

Santander's chief executive Mike Regnier said "we haven't made any decisions yet" but "we tend to use the Santander brand on the high street around the world".

Mr Regnier told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There's still a number of hurdles for us to get over, approvals from the shareholders of Sabadell, approvals from the UK regulator."

He said he expected a decision to be made in the early months of next year.

When asked about potential job losses and branch closures, Mr Regnier said: "We should be able to create efficiencies savings of around 13% of the combined cost base of Santander and TSB.

"That will probably come from a number of areas."

TSB has 175 branches in the UK and 5,000 employees while Santander has around 349 banks, but it has been shutting branches, saying more customers want to do their banking digitally.

A Santander spokeswoman said: "For now it is business as usual for Santander UK and TSB colleagues," but she did not rule out branch closures, and said there would be job cuts.

"There will be duplication, particularly in back office roles," she said, adding: "Where there is an impact on people this will be communicated directly to affected colleagues and their representatives as is right and proper."

The deal is expected to close in the first three months of 2026, and its value could go up to £2.9bn considering TSB's estimated profits until then, Sabadell said.

Santander UK's spokeswoman said: "At the moment nothing changes with branches. It is true, however, that the way customers are choosing to bank is changing and all banks are currently undergoing a programme of transformation that reflects this.

"And of course, it would make no sense to have two branches of the same bank in any one community."

Marc Armengol, TSB's chief executive, said: "Today's announcement represents the next exciting chapter for this successful business, as part of Santander, a highly regarded banking group."

He added that he believed it would be "an excellent fit for our loyal customers".

Santander has a track record of buying up UK banking brands and absorbing them into the business, with past takeovers including Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester.

On the future of the TSB brand, Santander said: "This kind of detail will be provided once the deal is completed."

Ana Botin, executive chair of Santander Group, said buying TSB shows the Spanish bank's confidence both in its strategy and the UK market.

A sale would be the latest step in an eventful history for TSB, which can trace its roots back more than 200 years.

It was once owned by Lloyds, which was forced by the European Commission to spin off the business as a separate brand after Lloyds received a £20bn bailout during the global financial crisis in the late 2000s.

Lloyds eventually sold its remaining stake in TSB to Sabadell of Spain in 2015 in a deal worth £1.7bn.

Following that takeover, TSB suffered an IT meltdown in 2018 which left customers unable to access online accounts for several weeks.

The problems were caused when TSB tried to move 1.3 billion customer records from an old system run by former parent Lloyds to one managed by Sabadell.

It was fined nearly £49m by the Financial Conduct Authority for "widespread and serious" failings.

On Tuesday, TSB said it will continue to use its current IT system "until migration" to Santander in order to guarantee "operational continuity".

Sabadell is selling TSB as it attempts to fend off a long-running hostile takeover bid from Spain's BBVA.