Barclays, the banking group, confirmed this morning that it was in talks with BlackRock, the US money manager led by Larry Fink, over the sale of its Barclays Global Investors (BGI) unit but cautioned that discussions had yet to be concluded.

The company, which received approaches for BGI after initially intending to sell only its iShares business, played down reports that a deal was imminent, making it clear that at least one other party — thought to be Bank of New York Mellon — was still involved.

Barclays was previously thought to be close to agreeing a $13 billion (£8.1 billion) sale of BGI to BlackRock, triggering a payout of $585 million to employees, with a deal tipped to be announced on Wednesday.

In a statement this morning, Barclays confirmed that, since announcing the sale of iShares to CVC Capital Partners for about $4.4 billion in April, it had received other proposals for iShares and the broader BGI business.

It added: "In assessing such proposals, Barclays has had discussions with a number of parties, including with BlackRock, about both iShares and BGI. The discussions are not yet concluded and there are a number of significant open issues which could affect the nature and terms of any transaction.

"There is no certainty that these discussions will result in Barclays concluding a different transaction than that announced on 9 April with CVC regarding iShares."

Barclays said it would update the market "no later than" June 19.

Although the bank has agreed a deal to sell iShares to CVC, under the terms of a so-called "go-shop" provision it can seek counter-bids for iShares and other related businesses until June 18.

Despite the interest from Bank of New York Mellon, analysts said that BlackRock remained the favourite. If BlackRock buys BGI, Barclays is tipped to take a stake of up to 20 per cent in the US group, with Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, likely to join the board.

Mr Fink has been in the Middle East seeking backing for a deal, with the Kuwait Investment Authority and Qatar Investment Authority both tipped to provide funding.

Separately, Lloyds Banking Group today announced that it had received an 87 per cent acceptance level in a £4 billion placing of shares that will allow it to repay some of the billions of pounds pumped into the bank by the taxpayer.

After Friday's stormy annual meeting, when the Lloyds chairman, Sir Victor Blank, faced an embarrassing protest vote over his re-election to the board, the bank is now close to completing a share placing to convert preference shares sold to the Government into ordinary shares.

The new shares were priced at 38.4p — a hefty discount to Friday's closing price in London of 66p.

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