British banking giants Lloyds TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS) could join a bidding war for Abbey National, reports said Sunday.
The home loan specialist recommended an 8.9 billion pound (13.5 billion euro, 16.4 billion dollar) take-over bid from Spain's biggest bank Santander Central Hispano but HBoS announced last week that it was considering a counter-bid for its high-street rival.
A Lloyds TSB insider told Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper: "If other banks are thinking seriously about it, then we have to be ready just in case.
"We would probably be mad not to have a go if somebody else did," the source said.
British weekly The Observer said that RBoS is also preparing to throw its hat into the ring, with a team of senior executives investigating the benefits of launching a bid for Abbey, Britain's second-biggest mortgage lender.
A banker told the broadsheet: "RBoS may not want HBoS or another UK bank to have a clear run, and could well enter the fray."
The Competition Commission blocked an offer from Lloyds TSB three years ago, but the emergence of HBoS has changed the market.
The bank, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, was formed by the merger of home-loan specialist Halifax and Bank of Scotland, also in 2001.
A deal between Abbey and HBoS would sew up 34 percent of the British morgage market, but an RBoS link-up would command under 20 percent.
Abbey has a network of 741 branches and about 26,000 employees.