Bank of Scotland is aiming to steal a march on rival Lloyds TSB by tying up a merger with British mortgage bank Abbey National within weeks.
The bank said it hoped to take advantage of the referral of Lloyds' own takeover bid for Abbey to Britain's Competition Commission.
With the commission given until June 12 to report its findings, BoS and Abbey have breathing space to finalise their own deal.
BoS denied reports today that it was preparing to abandon its long-running plans for a merger with Abbey and said the two groups would resume talks this week.
A spokesman added: 'We will be looking to progress this in weeks rather than months.'
The City is keen to see talks concluded swiftly so it can assess whether a BoS-Abbey merger is a viable alternative to the Lloyds deal.
