Church of England bids for RBS branches

The Church of England has blessed a consortium of financiers who are battling to win a bid for 315 Royal Bank of Scotland branches with millions of pounds of extra fire-power. The Church Commissioners, which manages a £5.5bn investment portfolio, has joined a consortium lined up by Lord Davies, the former Labour minister and boss of Standard Chartered, which is vying with two other rivals to buy the branches. The other members of the consortium are Lord Rothchild’s RIT Capital; Centrebridge, an American investor, and Standard Life.

Archbishop Justin Welby, who recently sat on the Parliamentary Banking Standards Commission, is one of the Church Commissioners charged with directing the investment fund. However sources close to the deal said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was not involved in the decision to bid for the RBS branches which has been planned over many months. RBS was ordered to sell the portfolio of branches in 2009 by European competition authorities after the bank received £45.5bn in state aid. Santander UK was lined up to buy the branches for an estimated £1.65bn, but pulled out of the deal in October complaining about IT problems....Read more here