BANK OF Scotland (Ireland) (BoSI) has opened up the personal loan, credit card and deposit books at its retail division, Halifax, to interested buyers as it seeks to offload parts of the business before its planned closure in June.

Prospective buyers have been provided with details of close to €1 billion in fixed-term and demand deposits, and balances in more than 50,000 current accounts at Halifax as BoSI assesses the level of outside interest of rival institutions in parts of the business.

Details of a further €500 million in personal loans and balances due on more than 50,000 credit cards have also been disclosed confidentially to potential buyers.

A spokesman for BoSI declined to comment on details provided by the bank to interested parties.

The vast majority of the €10 billion loan book at Halifax, which consists mostly of home loans and residential investment mortgages, will be held to maturity by the bank, though BoSI remains open to the possibility of selling or outsourcing the management of some of its retail mortgage book.

Banking sources played down the possibility of another institution taking over Halifax’s credit card and current account customers, questioning whether it would be able to retain the deposits, or deal with the complexities of taking on part of another lender’s book over a short period.

Any interested parties will also be swayed by the deposit rates offered by Halifax to customers.

BoSI announced last week that it was shutting down Halifax from June with the loss of 750 jobs and the closure of 44 branches.