The European Commission approved Spanish bank Santander's £1.3 billion ($2.3 billion) takeover of British mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester this morning, saying the deal would not harm competition in the sector.
Santander, Europe's second-largest bank, already owns UK bank Abbey and the deal would combine the sixth-and eighth-largest banks in Britain with overlaps in payment cards, financial services and insurance, the Commission said.
"However, in all these activities the combined entity would have market shares below 15 per cent and would face strong competition from several UK banks such as Barclays, HBOS, Lloyds, Nationwide and RBS/NatWest," the European Union executive said in a statement.