Santander's Takeover Of Alliance & Leicester Spells Shake-up Of High Street Banks

[crash2006]

A major shake-up of Britain's high street banks is on the cards after the Spanish owner of Abbey agreed to buy Alliance & Leicester for £1.3bn

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtm...alliance514.xml

thats all my predictions marked off now, click below to find out.

The euro 1.30 to the pound stock market biggest drop since the 80s in feb march, repos rising faster than the official stats, house price drop 10%-15% by end of year. i get a merit in july bah just messed up an exam. Government cuts backs on public spending no buyers for NR a&L taken over.

Edited July 14, 2008 by crash2006

[sambino]

How many redundancies will be made because of the merger ?

[crash2006]

How many redundancies will be made because of the merger ?

Possible up 2 half of the workers, i thought this would be a big topic.

[Ash4781]

It [Abbey] said its market share was up to 15.9% in the first quarter of 2008, up from 4.9% in the same period of 2007.

The bank was able to benefit from the strong capital position of its parent company Santander.

Spain's largest bank posted a first quarter net profit, just ahead of forecasts, of 2.206bn euros (£1.73bn).

Abbey managed to avoid the difficulties of many of its rivals during the credit crunch because it relies on customer deposits for much of its lending.

Santander has also offered it increased financial backing as well as access to the credit lines offered by the European Central Bank.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7372727.stm

Seems like they've been clever here as they've ramped up market share prior to an aquisition which under 'normal' conditions would be blocked by the regulator. HBOS must be fuming!

[crash2006]

Oh that's right, the crash happened in 2006

It was the start of things

[VacantPossession]

Oh dear; if this goes ahead then Abbey, the most inefficient bank in the universe, with the poorest customer service, and the worst computer system in banking, will become even worse. Bank Santander already has a backlog of nightmare clunkiness in its system. It is trying to dominate Europe and other regions by cutting costs and boosting margins at the expense of its depositors and customers, and staff who have a low enough moral as it is, and who are poorly paid.

This will be a disaster for customers.

VP

[Swipe]

Damn, means I'll have to find another home for yet another 35k, I already have an isa with abbey

Edited July 14, 2008 by Swipe

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

Abbey are a scum bank - if you hold an account with them, close it.

[crash2006]

Damn, means I'll have to find another home for yet another 35k, I already have an isa with abbey

looks like you may have too, the fish pond is getting smaller.

[Harry Sacks]

Santander will be the next casualty.

[time 2 raise interest rates]

Oh that's right, the crash happened in 2006

Well the Halifax say house prices are back to 2006 prices, Aug 07 £199,770 now 180,000

that's a £20,000 fall in ten months and the same as they were in 2006. hope this helps.

[crash2006]

Santander will be the next casualty.

i am not sure, have a funny feeling they are going to merge a&l with abbey, and then try to sell off the funny bits of both companies.

[crash2006]

Well the Halifax say house prices are back to 2006 prices, Aug 07 £199,770 now 180,000

that's a £20,000 fall in ten months and the same as they were in 2006. hope this helps.

lol, what i mean was this crash had a starting point, in my eyes that starting point was 2006, the problem with crashes it takes time to filter out.

[right_freds_dead]

The swift chancellor, flex, the white-gold tarantula

Track truck diesel, play the weed God, substatiala

Max mostly, undivided then slide it, it's sickening

Guaranteed, made em jump like Rod Strickland.

[thecrashingisles]

i am not sure, have a funny feeling they are going to merge a&l with abbey, and then try to sell off the funny bits of both companies.

I don't know why they kept the Abbey name when they bought them out. I'd have thought that turning Santander into a more international brand would lend them more weight.

[crash2006]

I don't know why they kept the Abbey name when they bought them out. I'd have thought that turning Santander into a more international brand would lend them more weight.

When they took over abby santander wasnt as big as it is now, plus it was a bonus keeping the abbey name not to alienate the brits and to keep the brand a uk brand. However i know abbey has problems in some areas not all, and thats why i think they are going to merge both and leave the crappy parts out of abbey, like a swap of good assets.