Santander shifts assets out of London to ring-fence UK unit

MADRID (Reuters) - Banco Santander UK <SAN.MC> has transferred 22.9 billion pounds of assets and 20.7 billion pounds of liabilities to its Madrid-based parent group, the bank said, in a move to comply with new ring-fencing rules that come into force in 2019.

Banks operating in Britain must separate deposit-taking operations from riskier, investment banking before January 2019.

The assets shifted out of London represent 7 percent of Banco Santander's British assets and 6.7 percent of its liabilities, according to the bank's financial report for the first half of the year published on August 10.

(Reporting By Jesús Aguado; editing by Julien Toyer)