Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Your future mortgage? You can choose between HBOSLloydsTSB or Santander! MONOPOLY!
BBC News: Name change for High Street banks
Spanish banking giant Santander is to rebrand all of its major UK High Street brands - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.
Posted by flintster1994 @ 10:12 AM (1181 views) Add Comment
25 Comments
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1. japanese uncle said...
This could well have been the central agenda of all these financial crisis fuss.
2. icarus said...
Ideas from Zak @ 'beyond the box' consultants
. Neither the start nor the end of the week, the name embodies the best of both worlds, a mixture of home and work, sleeves rolled up and in the thick of the action. The chevrons enhance the sense of inclusiveness.
Abbey could become "abba". This highly innovative name is derived from taking the first two letters of the alphabet and then repeating them backwards. It shows that the company is made up of lateral thinkers who will go to any lengths to deliver value to the entire community of stakeholders.
Bradford & Bingley could become "b and b". This represents a path-breaking image re-vitalisation. It retains the best of the tradition but the lower-case letters take on the energy and buzz of a creative, young company. Replacing "&" with "and" lends an honesty and freshness that is closely aligned with the company's personality.
Alliance % Leicester could become
(With thanks to 'Martin Lukes' and Lucy Kellaway: 'Who Moved My BlackBerry')
3. uncle tom said...
More boardroom megalomania - how much is the 200yr old Norwich Union spending to convince us that the meaningless name 'Aviva' is somehow better..?
4. icarus said...
dunno what happened there. It should have read Alliance& Leicester could become. Neither the start....etc.
5. icarus said...
It happened again. A & L was to become 'Wednesday' but the word was enclosed by chevrons,,,,,,and it got deleted twice.
6. refusetobuy said...
The chevrons are used in HTML. You've probably tagged the A&L as Wednesday, which will confuse the hell out of future web researchers.
7. hpwatcher said...
Next thing will be closing branches.....I mean why have 3 shops all called Santander in a single high street????
8. 51ck-6-51x said...
Err and Barclays / Woolwich
Two companies ain't a monopoly to start with and three certainly ain't! (I'm sure there are still other players too)
9. matt_the_hat said...
There goes your £50k cover with each bank
OK 8. 51ck-6-51x its a cartel
10. nomad said...
@ 7. hpwatcher. "Next thing will be closing branches".
Why are no steps being taken to close the many now superfluous bank and BS branches? It doesn't make sense when they need stronger balance sheets . . . unless the long hand of the government is involved. Tax payers money to retain jobs. Should we not just get on with it and find more useful occupations for all the staff? Is it simply more camouflage disguising the true economic situation?
11. hpwatcher said...
@ 10. nomad
It is coming, it's only a matter of time. I think the many government bail outs have only put plans on hold......
12. icarus said...
matt - I thought the £50k cover was based on ownership, not brand, and there never were separate £50k covers for these banks. If re-branding did what you're suggesting it would reduce total deposits in the Santander empire and would be highly counterproductive.
13. 51ck-6-51x said...
matt_the_hat / icarus
- The branding is inconsequential, all that matters is the FSA authorisation - the subsidiaries may still exist even though the names have become one to the consumer.
The compensation limits (for deposit claims) are £50k per person per FSA Authorisation & similarly £100K for joint accounts, although I imagine one couple cannot get 50K, 50K AND 100K for the same Authorised institution.
14. 51ck-6-51x said...
(I'm not sure why I capitalised authorisation there... odd)
15. jonb said...
At the moment you have £50k cover for your combined Abbey and Bradford & Bingley Deposits, a separate £50k for your Alliance & Leicester Deposits and a further £50k for your Cater Allen deposits.
This change will presumably mean your Abbey and A&L limits will be combined, so you may have to move some of your money elsewhere.
You have separate limits for Lloyds TSB (which includes Cheltenham & Gloucester) and Lloyds TSB Scotland, even although they both share the same brand.
16. timmy t said...
Re compensation limits - does anyone know the score with Cash ISA's? I have 35K in a mini-cash ISA - does that mean I should keep savings with that bank to £15K?
17. icarus said...
In short, the FSA authorisation is based mainly on institution rather than brand, but there are some anomalies.
18. mr g said...
Looks as though there could still be a place for the building societies if you don't want to bank with monolithic organisations which should p*ss off some contributors to this site who seem to have an intense dislike of the mutuals.
19. techieman said...
timmy t and icarus - look at the martin lewis site for full details. Money saving expert .com or similar.
20. 51ck-6-51x said...
^ or go straight to the source: http://www.fscs.org.uk/ (or even: 020 7892 7300)
21. nomad said...
10. & 11. So the government provided bail outs on the understanding that they would not add to the unemployment figures - until when? If it's until the green shoots are "comin' up roses" we could be carrying them for a long time.
22. peeping tom said...
hpwatcher said...
'Next thing will be closing branches.....I mean why have 3 shops all called Santander in a single high street????'
Spot on, however those building societies which have been (Cheshire, Derbyshire) or are soon to be (West Brom) taken over are likely to suffer the same fate within a year or two.
23. Tenyearstogetmymoneyback said...
hpwatcher said...
'Next thing will be closing branches.....I mean why have 3 shops all called Santander in a single high street????'
It will be interesting to see what happens in Christchurch Dorset where A & L and Abbey are directly opposite.
The same thing happened about a year ago with Portman and Nationwide. The Portman branch is now a
Bookies which seems appropriate in these times. When reading the original article at lunch time a colleague
complained about the service at Nationwide where there are now always long queues.
:- Duncan
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