Banco Santander's U.S. subsidiary, Sovereign Bank, for instance, represented 6% of Santander's profit in the year ended Dec. 31.
The group also includes Spain's Banco Santander and Belgium's Fortis.
Its assets have been nationalised and its retail deposits sold to Spain's Banco Santander.
Remaining bidders reportedly include Deutsche Bank and Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano.
She noted that Spain's Banco Santander might also be planning to do something with its 25.0% stake in Sovereign Bancorp, which has just gone on the hunt for fresh capital, but it was not clear what.
For Jean Sassus of Raymond James Euro Equities, it's also doubtful that a merger would really result in long-term gains, such as those achieved when Spain's Banco Santander made when it took over Abbey National in Britain.
She noted that Spain's Banco Santander (nyse: STD - news - people ) might also be planning to do something with its 25.0% stake in Sovereign Bancorp (nyse: SOV - news - people ), which has just gone on the hunt for fresh capital, but it was not clear what.
The RBS group wants to break up the lender into three parts, so that Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis would get ABN's Dutch operations, Spanish bank Banco Santander Central Hispano SA, acquires ABN's Brazilian and Italian arms, and RBS getting Chicago-based LaSalle.
Indeed, Banco Santander, now Europe's biggest bank, has gone on a buying spree of failing banks in Britain and America.
The RBS group wants to break up the lender into three parts, so that Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis would get ABN's Dutch operations, Spanish bank Banco Santander Central Hispano SA (nyse: STD - news - people ), acquires ABN's Brazilian and Italian arms, and RBS getting Chicago-based LaSalle.
That would also further jeopardize the RBS bid, since it would require all three banks to once again confer about adjusting their offer and could particularly put off Banco Santander, which is interested in ABN's Latin American assts.
Banco Santander, for example, essentially came to Sovereign's rescue because the latter was hemorrhaging money over its exposure to mortgage delinquencies.
The New York Stock Exchange ruled that the proposed acquisition of a 19.8% stake in Sovereign Bancorp by Banco Santander Central Hispano did not need the approval of Sovereign's shareholders.
While major European banks like Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Banco Santander have plummeted given their direct exposure to the crisis, major U.S. banks have fallen in tandem, with Morgan Stanley, Citi, and JPMorgan, among others, seeing their stock prices nose dive.
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Spain's banking sector may have proven relatively resilient so far, with Banco Santander even making acquisitions in the current environment, but the Spanish press claimed on Monday that the government was now considering buying bank and savings-bank debt to offer support.
Shares in European financials like Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank were up more than 4% on Thursday, while global U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley surged.
This has held for major U.S. names like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase, as for European names like Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse.
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