Brussels, 16/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 September, the European Commission authorised the proposed acquisition of the British bank, Alliance & Leicester, by the Spanish bank, Banco Santander. Banco Santander is already present in the United Kingdom since the acquisition of Abbey National, which received Commission clearance in 2004.
The main business areas in which the activities of the parties overlap are retail banking, corporate banking to SME, factoring, payment cards, financial market services and insurance. However, in all these activities the combined entity would have market shares below 15% and would face strong competition from several UK banks such as Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide and RBS/NatWest. In addition, Alliance & Leicester is present in cash handling and cash sales, markets in which Banco Santander is not active. Nonetheless, the Commission points out that vertical relations could be established between the two companies post merger but states that, given the market structure and the limited shares of Alliance & Leicester, the transaction is not likely to have a significant impact on these markets. The Commission has therefore concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in a substantial part of it. (O.L./transl.jl)