Bank of Scotland is to team up with Mr Pat Robertson, the US television evangelist, to mount a direct banking operation in the US.

The model for the venture is Sainsbury's Bank, the telephone banking business that Bank of Scotland introduced the UK in 1997 in partnership with the J. Sainsbury, the British supermarket group.

This time, the Scottish bank will walk down the aisle with a preacher, businessman and former candidate for the US presidency, whose Christian Broadcasting Network reaches an estimated 55 million viewers every year.

Direct telephone banking is less developed in the US than in the UK. Many banks have envied the success of First Direct, a subsidiary of the HSBC banking group, and several banks are doing business over the Internet.

Mr William Hendry, who heads Bank of Scotland's US operations, said the alliance was formed out of "serendipity" after he met Mr Robertson. Mr Hendry said he brought entrepreneurial spirit, knowledge of banking and of American consumers' preferences.