The Church of England is in line to receive more than £60 million from a Royal Bank of Scotland sell-off of more than 300 branches.
The Church's investment arm, the Church Commissioners, owns 10 per cent of the £600m bond issued in 2013 to raise funds to aid the separation of Williams & Glyn from the Royal Bank of Scotland. If Williams & Glyn is sold, the bond will be redeemed, Sky News reports.
Sources told Sky that the Church Commissioners could even receive as much as £80 million.
A source close to the consortium involved told Sky: "The redemption of the bond is allowed under the contractual provisions, the terms of which were commercially agreed between RBS and the investor consortium. In this instance there would be compensation owed to the Church Commissioners."
Santander UK and Virgin Money are among potential bidders looking at working out a deal to buy Williams & Glyn. A formal auction is expected to begin soon. It could be worth as much as £2 billion.
RBS and the Church Commissioners declined to comment.
The RBS website states: "We're launching a new bank, Williams & Glyn in 2017. RBS England & Wales customers will become part of Williams & Glyn when it launches. We'll be updating customers on our journey to Williams & Glyn over the coming months and will let them know, in plenty of time, if there's anything they need to do before. In the meantime it's business as usual and we'll keep looking after our customers as normal."
