Senior brokers at CCF Securities are hoping that KBC Bancassurance, the Belgian banking group, rather than BNP Paribas, will emerge as the eventual winner in the £100m (€159m) auction for the business.

KBC and BNP Paribas are the two frontrunners to buy the business, as revealed by efinancialnews.com last week. HSBC has decided to put the business up for sale after its €11bn acquisition of Credit Commercial de France this year.