Oct 9 (Reuters) - The British arm of Spanish bank Santander will participate in a UK programme to help people buytheir own homes, Chief Executive Ana Botin told Reuters onWednesday.
The scheme, known as Help to Buy, allows home buyers to putdown a deposit of as little as 5 percent and gives banks greaterprotection against losses. It also allows them to set aside lesscapital than against a normal mortgage.
"We are going to participate. The programme was originallymeant to begin in January so we will try to advance that. Wewill announce the details on how we will participate closer tothe date when we will be launching," Botin told Reuters afterspeaking at an event in London.
State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds will start offering loans under the scheme this week,and HSBC said it will offer Help to Buy mortgages forcustomers with a 5-10 percent deposit later this year.