Santander to buy RBS company

Spanish bank Santander said today it had signed a deal in principle to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland's consumer finance division…

Spanish bank Santander said today it had signed a deal in principle to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland's consumer finance division in Europe.

Santander did not give a price for the purchase but said RBS's European consumer finance division had assets totalling €2.2 billion in 2007.

Last month Santander said it was selling Italian corporate banking arm Interbanca to General Electric in exchange for consumer finance units in a deal worth €1 billion. That arm had assets of €9 billion.