The account is currently shared by the two agencies, but the bank is believed to be considering a consolidation of the business.
Non-roster agencies have been approached ahead of the pitch, although a shortlist has not yet been finalised.
Carat handles press buying for Alliance & Leicester while MediaVest Manchester is the incumbent on the TV business. MediaVest Manchester is believed to handle roughly two thirds of the billings for the client, while Carat handles roughly a third.
The bank last reviewed its media in 2004 when it retained MediaVest Manchester while adding Carat to the roster on its account.
Alliance & Leicester recently conducted a direct marketing campaign for its commercial bank division through direct agency TDA. The campaign targeted small businesses.
In February, the advertiser implemented a digital customer relationship marketing strategy across all of its retail financial products following the appointment of digital marketing agency Inbox Digital.
The bank handles £20.6bn worth of customer accounts and has £3.5bn in personal loans and 1.5m active current accounts.
The advertiser spends heavily on direct marketing and online. Creative duties are split between McCann Erickson and Big Communications.
Lesley Vernon, head of marketing communications at Alliance & Leicester, said: "We are happy with our current media buying arrangements. However, in the spirit of continuous improvement we regularly review every aspect of our business to ensure we are using our resources in the best possible way. As part of this, we feel it is the right time to review our existing media buying arrangements."
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