BBVA is undecided whether it will sell TSB if the bank succeeds in its €12bn hostile takeover of the UK bank’s Spanish parent Sabadell.
Spanish lender BBVA’s chief executive Onur Genc said he was “neutral” on keeping TSB in any future combined banking group.
“We have to see once we complete the deal,” said Genc at the FT global banking summit in London.
He added: “Local scale is important and that’s why we are doing the deal.”
Last week, the European Commission said it did not have any objections to BBVA’s plans to takeover small rival Sabadell.
However, Spain’s antitrust regulator CNMC, said last month opened a phase 2 review of the deal, which could delay the body coming to a decision until well into next year.
If a deal were to go ahead, the combined group would be a big player in payment services in Spain as well as insurance, pension plans and asset management.
BBVA launched a hostile takeover of Sabadell valued at more than €12bn in Ma,y after its board rejected a bid of the same value.
Last week, TSB appointed Marc Armengol as its next chief executive, joining from Sabadell.
Armengol will succeed Robin Bulloch who retires after a 45-year career in retail banking, which saw him join TSB in 2019 and lead the lender two years later.
Armengol is currently chief operations officer at Sabadell, a role he has held since March 2021.
Sabadell bought TSB for £1.7bn in 2015.
