TD Waterhouse is reported to be among the prospective buyers for Deutsche Bank’s U.S. online broker, National Discount Brokers, according to the Financial Times.

The newspapers says that Deutsche Bank “is in advanced talks to sell National Discount Brokers”, citing “someone close to the situation”. FT says that prospective buyers include TD Waterhouse, E*Trade and Ameritrade. It also reports that a deal could be announced as early as next week. None of the companies involved would comment on the report.

Analysts estimate that NDB could cost between US$150 million and US$200 million, based on valuations of similar companies. Deutsche Bank paid almost US$900 million for the 84% of the firm it did not own last October.

It is said to be interested in retaining its market-making operations and selling off the online trading part. Although the profitability of market-making has been hammered by the downturn in volume and U.S. decimalization.