Santander is understood to have joined a number of interested parties which have submitted an offer for TSB, at a reported valuation of £2.3 billion.
The move by Santander follow’s fellow Spanish bank Sabadell’s decision to seek potential buyers for TSB which was spun out of Lloyds Banking Group and was briefly listed on the stock market before being bought by its current owner for £1.7bn in 2015.
Santander and Sabadell declined to comment in response to the story by the Reuters news agency. Barclays was named as another bidder by Bloomberg but has also not commented.
The possible sale of TSB, which has the seventh largest branch network among UK banks, comes as Sabadell tries to ward off being taken over by rival BBVA..
The buyer of TSB would add assets of £46bn, mainly made up of mortgages, and customer deposits of around £35bn.
NatWest has recently played down suggestions of a bid for Santander amid speculation of a new round of banking takeovers.
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