Beleagured bank Abbey National is thought to be in talks with suitors following recent poor results and the subsequent loss of its chief executive Ian Harley.
While many pundits have speculated that the National Bank of Australia is the leader, one insurance industry boss put forward an interesting scenario at Groupama's recent Goodwood wing-ding.
It seems that another player in the talks could be Legal & General. It is well known that L&G was sniffing around NatWest before it was gobbled up by Royal Bank of Scotland last year.
With such a strong high street presence and an as yet underdeveloped general insurance offering, Abbey National could be an excellent fit for L&G. The L&G management regards high street banks as excellent paths to market and has a significant deal with Barclays/ Woolwich.
The deal is worth a lot of money to L&G.
But in some eyes, L&G has too many eggs in one basket.
How much more secure it would be to own your own high street banks.
