LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to prepare a spin-off of scores of its Williams & Glyn-branded retail branches, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Without citing sources, the Telegraph said investment bankers would start meeting investors later this year to discuss the planned float of Williams & Glyn in 2016 which RBS hopes will value the new bank at 1.5 billion pounds ($2.31 billion).

RBS was ordered to sell Williams & Glyn, which comprises 314 branches and is focused on lending to small businesses, by European regulators as a condition of its 46 billion pound government bailout during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

($1 = 0.6482 pounds) (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Jason Neely)