Spanish banks BBVA and Santander Central Hispano also have significant exposure to Argentina.
Remaining bidders reportedly include Deutsche Bank and Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano.
The mutation also shows up in Hispano families elsewhere in Latin America.
But Barclays has the advantage of easy maneuverability in this bid battle, something which the three-way consortium of RBS, Banco Santander Central Hispano and Fortis lacks.
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.
The Santander Central Hispano bank has forecast the economy could contract by 40% in the first quarter of 2003 and the central bank has put annual inflation at 33.8% in January, the highest in five years.
The Argentinean steel producer Siderurgica del Orinoco is pressured to satisfy domestic demand, whereas foreign banks like Banco Hispano de Santander (Spain) are pushed to roll over the internal debt and lend cheaply to the domestic sector.
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.
But Barclays has the advantage of easy maneuverability in this bid battle, something which the three-way consortium of RBS, Banco Santander Central Hispano (nyse: STD - news - people ) and Fortis (other-otc: FORSY - news - people ) lacks.
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.
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