The perennial question of whether National Australia Bank is a seller or a buyer of businesses in the UK has taken on a new aspect with recommendations, from the Independent Commission on Banking, that the UK Government lean on Lloyds Banking Group to "enhance… substantially" the planned sale of a chunk of its branches, customer accounts and loans. Lloyds, in line with an edict from the European Union, is working on plans to sell 600 branches, between £55 billion and £75 billion in home loans, and £35 billion in deposits. These account for a little less than five per cent of the market for everyday accounts and around five per cent of the mortgage market There is plenty of speculation over who will buy these assets. The list of prospective buyers includes NAB, Virgin Money and a minor parade of private equity interests with a British banking bent. The same names are also linked with the sale of Northern Rock, as they were with the sale last year of a portfolio of Royal Bank of Scotland assets to Santander. In its interim report, the Independent Commission on Banking concluded that "the Lloyds divestiture would be unlikely to give rise to a strong challenger, at least in its early years. "The divestitures will leave the PCA and SME banking markets particularly concentrated, and with LBG in a uniquely strong position in retail banking." As a result, the commission concluded that its "current view is that the planned Lloyds divestiture is insufficient and that it will have a limited effect on competition unless it is substantially enhanced". British media reports suggest that this would increase the scope of the sell-off to around 1000 branches. The report notes that even if a buyer of the Lloyds assets (which it describes as a "new market entrant") combined these with those of an existing small UK bank (such as NAB's Clydesdale Bank) this "might mitigate the balance sheet weaknesses of the divestiture and/or increase its scale. However… [this] would not address the problem of Lloyds' uniquely large share of the PCA market", which would still be 20 per cent after the sell-off as planned so far. In response to the ICB report, Lloyds said the proposal "would not be in the interests of our customers and appears to be based on limited evidence". It said an expansion of the existing planned sell-off "may significantly delay meeting the commitments agreed between the UK Government and EU". The commission's final report is due in September.