Top British Banks and Building Societies

November 26th, 2007 | finance-

The UK banking system is highly consolidated. In theory, this makes them less vulnerable to a run on their assets. However, the recent case of Northern Rock (one of the UK’s top 5 mortgage lenders) shows that no bank is invincible. Recently, the governor of the Bank of England suggested that more Banks may be vulnerable from the recent credit crunch.

This has proved the case with first:

HBOS needing to be taken over by Lloyds TSB. Merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB
Government Nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley. This makes the government the second biggest mortgage lender with over £150bn worth of mortgage securities (an average of £5,500) per tax payer.

The below pages will need updating at the end of the credit crunch. One thing is for sure, the banking system will become much more concentrated and less competitive.