Banco Santander (SAN) is exploring significant synthetic risk transfer deals tied to dollar-denominated assets, a move that would help bolster capital as the Spanish bank expands its US investment banking business, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The Spanish lender is in early discussions with investors about a potential SRT, covering roughly $1.2 billion of leveraged buyout debt, and may also pursue another deal linked to about $1 billion of corporate loans, the people told Bloomberg, adding that both transactions are still in preliminary stages and could change in size or structure following investor talks.

The bank is also considering other risk transfer deals, including one tied to roughly 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) in corporate loans from its Portugal unit and another linked to about 500 million British pounds ($672 million) of UK auto loans, according to other people familiar with the situation cited in the report.

Banco Santander didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)

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