Their current price makes me wonder - particularly foreign institutions wanting a big fat foothold in the UK?

R.

Would such a bid get past the regulators? I can see lots of cost savings merging ANL mortgages with LLOY's C&G but reducing competition on the High St -still viewed negatively. ANL still loss-suffering, has worse reputation than EGG which does not have traditional high 'customer interface' overheads and appears to be tinkering at the margins with the 're-launch' "ABBEY". ANL would be too expensive IMHO.