A number of firms have talked to National Australia Bank about teaming up with it to possibly buy more than 300 bank branches of Royal Bank of Scotland, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources.

The purchase of the bank branches would take place after RBS embarked on a big restructuring plan. The bank is seeking to slim down its operations and repay billions of pounds of UK bailout money.

In a deal with ANZ, the Australian-New Zealand banking group, RBS has sold retail and other businesses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and Singapore, and its institutional businesses in the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The firms that may join NAB in the bid are Blackstone, the US private equity firm, and Resolution Group.

NAB is mulling an offer for 318 branches and RBS asked potential buyers to express interest by the start of this week, sources have previously said, according to the news agency.

Royal Bank of Scotland is the parent of Coutts, the UK private bank, and RBS Coutts, its international sister wealth management firm. There has been no suggestion that either of these assets are up for sale.