UPDATE: Santander Says Nothing To Add On Reported M&T Talks

17th Jun 2010 13:59

(Updates throughout, adds further comment.) SANTANDER, Spain (Dow Jones)--Banco Santander SA's (STD) vice chairman said Thursday that he had nothing to add for now to reports of talks with M&T Bank Corp. (MTB) about a potential deal with its U.S. unit Sovereign Bank. "The only thing that's been said is that there were talks about a possible deal with a bank called M&T...and nothing else. At the moment, there isn't anything else to add to this," Matias Rodriguez Inciarte said, when asked about the recent reports at a conference in Santander, northern Spain. A spokesman for Santander later declined to say whether there are talks now between Santander and M&T. Sovereign and M&T held advanced merger discussions earlier this year but those talks fell apart, the Wall Street Journal reported in May. Inciarte did confirm that Santander had made a binding bid for the 318 U.K. branches put up for sale by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS). He added that the RBS assets "fit like a glove" with Santander's structure in the U.K. -By Pablo Dominguez and Christopher Bjork, EFE Dow Jones; +34 914518269; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 17, 2010 08:59 ET (12:59 GMT)