Santander buys SEB's German banking operations

Spanish bank Santander has signed an agreement to buy Swedish bank SEB's German business for 555m euros (£466.5m, $699m).

The sale represents around a quarter of SEB's business and will double the size of Santander's German branch network.

SEB has 173 branches in that country and one million customers.

It wants to concentrate on merchant banking and wealth management in Germany.

Santander's acquisition is its second major attempt at expanding its branch network in a month.

In June, Santander submitted an offer to buy the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) Williams & Glyn's subsidiary.

RBS is selling the unit - which includes 318 branches - after the European Commission ruled last year that it must dispose of the business as a condition of being bailed out by the UK government.

Santander already has a substantial presence on the UK High Street having bought Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in the past two years.

BBC