Top 10 UK Banks
This is a list of the top 10 British banks.
Bank |
Headquarters |
Assets £m) |
Assets ($m) |
|
| 1. | HSBC Bank |
London |
662,710 |
1,267,777 |
| 2. | Royal Bank of Scotland * |
Edinburgh |
583,467 |
1,124,108 |
| 3. | Barclays Bank |
London |
522,089 |
1,005,857 |
| 4. | HBOS * (merged with Lloyds TSB 2009) |
Edinburgh |
442,881 |
853,255 |
| 5. | Lloyds TSB * |
London |
279,843 |
539,146 |
| 6. | Standard Chartered |
London |
73,543 |
141,688 |
| 7. | Alliance & Leicester |
Leicester |
49,967 |
96,266 |
| 8. | Northern Rock * |
Newcastle upon Tyne |
42,790 |
82,439 |
| 9. | Co-operative Bank |
Manchester |
39,000 |
71,327 |
| 10. | Bradford & Bingley * |
Bingley |
35,458 |
68,313 |
* nationalised or part nationalised by government since credit crunch
Government Ownership of UK Banks
- Royal Bank of Scotland Group 84% owned by government
- Lloyds Banking group 43% owned by government
Other British Banks include:
- Bank of Scotland: merged with Halifax to form HBOS, but still trades under the Bank of Scotland name. Note: HBOS now taken over by Lloyds TSB
- Birmingham Midshires: owned by HBOS.
- Coutts & Co:(The Queen's Bank, apparently) owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
- Egg Banking plc is owned by the British insurance company Prudential plc, purchased by Citigroup for £575mm announced 29 January 2007.
- Halifax: merged with the Bank of Scotland to form HBOS but still trades under the Halifax name.
- Harrods Bank: owned by Harrods.
- Intelligent Finance: telephone and internet banking brand owned by HBOS.
- NatWest: owned by Royal Bank of Scotland.
- Reliance Bank: owned by The Salvation Army.
- Sainsbury's Bank: 55% owned by British supermarket company Sainsbury's and 45% owned by HBOS.
- Smile: telephone and internet banking brand owned by the Co-Operative Bank.
- Tesco Personal Finance: a 50:50 joint venture between British supermarket company Tesco and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
- Ulster Bank: owned by Royal Bank of Scotland.
- The Woolwich: owned by Barclays.
The UK has a highly consolidated banking system. Historically, the British banking system is very secure. It is very rare that Banks lose confidence. Although in September 2007, the Northern Rock experienced a run on its savings following emergency borrowing from the Bank of England
The Big 5 Banks
People often refer to the Big 5 banks. Post credit crunch, the big five banks are:
- HSBC
- Royal Bank of Scotland Group
- Lloyds Banking Group
- Barclays
- Santander (Spanish owned)
Other Big British Bank
- Standard Chartered - operates mainly in Asia and Far East, but is registered in London
Source:
Wikipedia - Banks of the United Kingdom