Sainsbury’s considers offers for £1.9bn mortgage book

The supermarket giant is running the role over offers from bidders including Lloyds Banking Group, according to Sky News.

However, other large lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander UK have not put forward proposals.

Sainsbury’s has instructed BNP Paribas to oversee the sale process as it seeks to follow Tesco in exiting the home loans market.

Tesco sold its mortgage book, which was about double the size of Sainsbury’s, to Lloyds earlier this year.

A similar move from Sainsbury’s would come as it seeks to reduce its exposure to the financial services sector.

Former RBS executive Jim Brown was drafted in as head of Sainsbury’s Bank earlier this year as it bids to put itself on a firmer footing.

Sainsbury’s said last month that a recent £35m injection of cash into its bank would be the final such investment into the division.

A Sainsbury’s Bank spokeswoman said: “As announced in September, we have stopped issuing new mortgages and are exploring options for the existing book.

“One option is to sell the book and we are exploring this option with interested parties. We emphasise that this is only one of the possible options.”

Mortgages have rapidly become a less attractive proposition for smaller banks as a result of the capital-intensive nature of lending and a price war across the sector.

Sainsbury’s Bank has about 2.1 million customers across its range of financial services, including credit cards, foreign currency exchange and insurance.