BofA's (BAC) MBNA Europe Unit Draws More Interest Ahead of Deadline

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has been looking to divest it's U.K. and Ireland credit card business, MBNA Europe.

According to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter, BofA has gotten interest from several firms, including Virgin Group's Virgin Money, Banco Santander (NYSE: STD), Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF), and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) in conjunction with Apollo Management.

This is the second-round of the process before the December 19th deadline.

The WSJ said it was unsure whether or not Goldman was making a bid, or simply funding Apollo's try.

MBNA Europe has businesses in Ireland and the U.K., and BofA would ideally like to sell both at once, the WSJ stated.

Currently, MBNA's loan book carries a value of GBP 1 billion (about $1.55 billion).

BofA shares are up 0.6 percent in Thursday afternoon trading.

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