The disposal by Sainsbury's mirrors this year's deal by rival supermarket chain Tesco to offload most of its banking activities to Barclays for 600 million pounds. The assets acquired include 1.4 billion pounds in unsecured personal loans, 1.1 billion pounds in credit card balances and about 2.6 billion pounds of customer deposits. The deal is expected to close in March 2025 and NatWest will receive an additional 125 million pounds payment from Sainsbury's at completion. Argos Financial Services (AFS) is also excluded from the deal, the retailer said, adding that its plans for this business will be announced at a future date. Sainsbury's expects to return excess capital of at least 250 million pounds to investors after the disposal and its future model for AFS is in place.

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Persons: Jose Sarmento Matos, Paul Thwaite, Thwaite, Sainsbury's, Simon Roberts Organizations: National Statistics, Bloomberg, Getty, NatWest, Sainsbury, NatWest Chief, Tesco, Barclays, Argos Financial Services Locations: London