Is Santander considering a float of UK businesses?
Santander, the enormous Spanish finance group, is considering a potential flotation of its UK operation which now includes Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester. Central to these plans appears to be the possibility of acquiring up to 300 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland which has been forced to reduce its high-street exposure by the European commission.
The sale of Royal Bank of Scotland high street branches is very much at an early stage but there is no doubt that companies such as Santander are interested. Official figures show that Santander now sells around half of all UK mortgages and has a very tight grip of the UK mortgage arena. It will be interesting to see whether the company does look to separate the UK division, a division which was recently rebranded as Santander.
The last two years, and the next two years, have seen a massive change in the UK banking industry which is now paying the price for overindulgence in the boom years. Companies such as Santander appear to have timed the acquisition of UK companies to perfection, taking advantage of difficult periods for individual companies such as Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester and putting together a quality UK operation.
Share this..
Related stories
UK mortgage approvals fell in February
The Bank of England has confirmed that UK mortgage approval numbers fell in February to 47,094, well down on the six-month average of 55,130 and also down on the 48,099 approved in January. While this is obviously a bitter blow to the UK property market, when you consider the forthcoming general election and the doom and gloom surrounding the UK economy at the turn of the year, it is perhaps under...
Read MoreAre we on the verge of a mortgage liquidity crisis?
There are growing concerns that competition in the UK mortgage market may well have peaked in the short-term and remortgaging could become more difficult in the latter part of 2010. Slowly but surely we appear to be slipping back towards a liquidity crisis in the mortgage market which has been brought on by the debt crisis in Europe, the UK economic situation and the UK governments move to reduce...
Read MoreMortgage approvals surpass Bank forecasts
The Bank of England (BoE) has announced that 114,000 mortgages were approved in May well above its expectation of a total of 105,000 for the month.It is the first time mortgage approvals have increased since January.Mortgage lending increased by £8.7 billion, the lowest rate of increase since February 2006. Together these indicators provide important information about the housing market as...
Read MoreShould you be looking towards offset mortgage arrangements?
Over the last few months is has become apparent that UK savers have been earning paltry interest on their nest eggs while paying out mortgage interest well above UK base rates. This has brought into play one area of the mortgage market which many people may be unaware of which is the offset mortgage deal. So what exactly is an offset mortgage arrangement? In simple terms the offset mortgage dea...
Read MoreGovernment: Hips are a success
The introduction of Home Information Packs (Hips) last year in the UK has been a success, a new government study appears to show.Housing minister Caroline Flint released the figures yesterday, which show that 72 per cent of customers were "satisfied" by the packs.Now used for all property transactions, Hips contain essential information on the home such as its energy performance certificate and ev...
Read More