Britain's Financial Services Authority said this morning that it had approved Banco Santander Central Hispano's takeover of UK bank Abbey National for £8.5 billion.
The UK watchdog had said in October that it saw no material barrier to the Spanish bank buying Abbey National. This is in spite of the fact that senior SCH board members are facing trial in Spain for alleged misappropriation over severance payments to former executives.
The European Commission approved the proposed takeover of Abbey by Spain's biggest bank in September.
Abbey first announced in late July that it had accepted a takeover bid from SCH under which the Spanish bank would offer one new SCH share and a special cash dividend of 31 pence for each Abbey share.
