Patrick Snowball, the former head of Aviva’s UK operations, has teamed up with BC Partners and Apollo Management for a possible bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s insurance assets, put up for sale last year in a multi-billion pound auction.

The Financial Times revealed in November that Mr Snowball was talking to a number of private equity groups with an interest in RBS Insurance, including BC Partners. Mr Snowball declined to comment on Sunday, as did RBS.