Sir Richard Branson set to make a move on 316 RBS branches The Sunday Telegraph understands that NBNK will also have a look at the unit, despite having told shareholders it will return remaining capital by the end of the year. NBNK, led by chief executive Gary Hoffman, lost out to the Co-operative Group in the battle for a 632-branch unit put up for sale by Lloyds Banking Group. It is understood Mr Hoffman is prepared to take a second look at the RBS division, which contains £21.7bn of customer deposits. It is thought that there is an outside chance that JC Flowers, the private equity house led by Christopher Flowers, will cast its eye over the numbers. However one source indicated a bid was unlikely. The original sales process saw five bidders. Sources revealed that Mr Hester has already received calls from two would-be bidders, although it is not known if the calls came from Virgin and NBNK. Santander's chief executive, Ana Botin, personally broke the news regarding the bank's decision to pull out of the two-year sales process to Mr Hester in a face-to-face meeting on Thursday evening. Today, Sir Philip Hampton, the RBS chairman, suggested that it would ask the European Union (EU) to reconsider its 2009 state-aid decision which forced RBS to sell the business by the end of 2013. Speaking in Tokyo, at the International Monetary Fund meeting, he claimed the European authorities have relaxed their position since 2009 when RBS was instructed to off-load its insurance business, its US commodities trading arm and the branch network in return for taking £45bn of taxpayer money. "What's changed since the original decision is the climate around state aid," he said However a senior RBS source said: "My own guess is that it will be futile to ask the EU to change their mind. My working assumption is that it is a question of taking a bit more time, which I think the EU will be more relaxed about. An extension request will be placed with the EU shortly, and RBS will then appoint investment banks to look at a two-track process. The first track would be a trade sale, either wholly or partially, with the victor running the accounts on RBS's technology platform. The second track would be to prepare the business for a stock market float, under the Williams and Glyn's brand, one of RBS's retired names. Virgin, NBNK and JC Flowers did not comment.