Bank of New York Mellon, the big US asset manager, has made an 11th hour offer for Baclays Global Investors – the unit of British bank Barclays which includes the iShares brand of ETFs. BGI has been on the block and was expected to be sold to rival Blackrock in a deal which would allow Barcalys to maintain a sizable stake in the merged entity.

BNY Mellon, however, is believed to have offered Barclays Sunday night a large premium to the Blackrock deal. The bank is desperately seeking cash in a bid to stave off the nationalization which has already befallen two of Britian’s largest banks.

A deal could be announced as soon as today.