Sharecast - According to Sky News, the Co-operative Bank, which is owned by a syndicate of private equity firms and hedge funds, is among the parties which have tabled a bid for the book.
One insider told Sky that the former mutually-owned lender appeared to be the frontrunner in the process, which is being run by advisers at Deloitte.
Starling Bank also expressed an interest but withdrew from the auction some time ago, the insider said.
The move is significant, partly because it would herald Sainsbury's Bank's formal exit from the UK mortgage market after it ceased new lending in 2019, but also because of what it would signal about the Co-operative Bank's resurgence, Sky said.
Sky revealed a year ago that it had hired bankers from PJT Partners to help it spearhead the consolidation of the mid-tier UK retail banking market. That move came soon after it had failed with a £1bn bid to prise TSB from the clutches of Sabadell, the Spanish bank.
Sainsbury's Bank's decision to sell the mortgage portfolio has emerged days after Sky News reported that rival Tesco (LON:TSCO) was weighing a disposal of its own banking operation.
