Royal Bank of Scotland, currently making the job of spinning off 600 branches resemble the labours of Hercules, has destroyed appetite for structural upheaval.
The bank is also in the process of spinning off 314 branches – under the terms imposed by the EU when it was bailed out – which employ 4,300 people under the Williams & Glyn's brand.
In the results statement, Lloyds said it was now considering other offers, but that it was also continuing to work on the option of spinning off the branches as a separate group and selling shares in it on the stock market.
But Royal Bank of Scotland is missing out, down 1.4p to 182.3p after Santander pulled out of talks to buy 315 branches the bank must spin off.
Royal Bank of Scotland's attempts to spin off 315 branches have received another setback after one of the highest-profile bidders pulled out.
The bank is required to spin off 316 branches under the Williams & Glyn brand under terms agreed with the European Union at the time of its bailout.
McEwan must also spin off 300 branches – imposed by the EU as a penalty for its bailout – which will eventually mean there will be no RBS branches in England and Wales and no NatWest branches in Scotland.
This is because it needs to spin off 300 branches under the Williams & Glyn brand – a sale mandated by the EU following its bailout – and settle the US cases over the sales of mortgage bonds.
The 73% taxpayer-owned RBS has been instructed to spin off the branches – which it is rebranding Williams & Glyn – by the EU as a penalty for its 2008 taxpayer rescue.
Lloyds Banking Group, required to spin off 632 branches by Europe, is expected to admit on Friday that it will miss a self-imposed deadline to sell them to the Co-op when it publishes its results for 2012.
First, a penalty, which analysts predict could be as much as $13bn£10bnbn), from the US authorities relating to the sale of mortgage bonds before the 2008 crisis; and secondly, the need to spin off 315 branches to meet EU rules at the time of the bailout.
