LONDON (Reuters) - Santander's British arm said spinning off and separately listing the UK bank remained "a medium term objective" but acknowledged uncertainty around the regulation of banks in Britain.
"It remains a medium term objective for the organisation. We're not under any pressure ... so we're building a business that at the right time is fit for an IPO," said Nathan Bostock, who took over as chief executive of Santander UK in September.
On a conference call with reporters, Bostock said that banks and Britain's financial regulator still had "a lot of work" to do to introduce new rules to protect ordinary customers' deposits from banks' riskier investment activities by 2019.
In addition, the industry is under investigation from Britain's competition watchdog which is examining whether the market for personal current accounts and small business banking services offer customers enough choice.
