The European Commission approved Citigroup Inc.'s deal Monday to buy Prudential PLC's Egg Bank.
Citi would pay $1.13 billion for the online bank, which has 2.9 million credit-card holders.
The deal is an about-face for Prudential's chief executive, Mark Tucker, and would conclude a long-running saga that started when Prudential launched Egg in 1998. The unit began losing money six years ago, when it expanded into France.
Prudential said proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce debt. It has said Egg is expected to report a pretax loss of $194 million on continuing operations for this year.
The deal extended an international shopping spree Citi kicked off late last year, in anticipation of faster growth outside its home market. Last month it agreed to acquire Morgan Stanley's U.K. wealth-management unit, Quilter.
