Alliance & Leicester, Abbey & Bradford & Bingley brands to go.

[davieG]

Spanish banking giant Santander is to rebrand all of its major UK High Street brands - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

A total of 1,300 branches will have their names changed to Santander by the end of 2010.

Any customer of the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester or Bradford & Bingley savings will be able to carry out transactions in any of Santander's UK branches.

Santander is the second-biggest banking group in the world after HSBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8069648.stm

Vote UKIP

[Head Honcho]

.................but they'll still charge you to withdraw your money in Spain!!!!

If the EU wanted to do something useful for a change maybe putting a stop to this shambolic practice would be a start.

[Darkzzz_]

So I am going to be part of Santander.

I just bum the Spanish.

[Tommy G]

Spanish banking giant Santander is to rebrand all of its major UK High Street brands - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

A total of 1,300 branches will have their names changed to Santander by the end of 2010.

Any customer of the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester or Bradford & Bingley savings will be able to carry out transactions in any of Santander's UK branches.

Santander is the second-biggest banking group in the world after HSBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8069648.stm

Vote UKIP

Whats wrong with that? It's like McDonalds buying out burger king then not rebranding all off their new restaurants. 'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner really

[davieG]

Whats wrong with that? It's like McDonalds buying out burger king then not rebranding all off their new restaurants. 'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner really

Nothing from Santander's point of view it's just a shame to see more long standing British trade names disappear, it was inevitable once all the Building Societies changed to being banks, the financial system didn't need so many banks.

[Guest]

.................but they'll still charge you to withdraw your money in Spain!!!!

If the EU wanted to do something useful for a change maybe putting a stop to this shambolic practice would be a start.

So what about cash machines here that charge you to withdraw money?

You should open an account with Nationwide, as they don't charge anything to withdraw money abroad.

[Monk]

Doesn't bother me at all. There is so much M&A in banking anyway, and if Santander hadn't bought them they'd be bust anyway.

The only thing that does bother me if they are integrating the brands is - what happens where there is a B&B next to an A&L? Or in the same town? Does one close now? Or will they continue to act as seperate entities like First Direct and HSBC?

Job losses come to mind.

[Monk]

So what about cash machines here that charge you to withdraw money?

You should open an account with Nationwide, as they don't charge anything to withdraw money abroad.

I believe that they have withdrawn the offer outside of Europe, but it is still the most competitive rate alongside the post office mastercard.

[Guest]

I believe that they have withdrawn the offer outside of Europe, but it is still the most competitive rate alongside the post office mastercard.

I bloody well hope that they haven't.

[Hitesh]

I was in Bradford and Bingley today when they started changing the posters and bringing out large signs announcing that the change was happening from now until 2010. Even my cheque I got today had Abbey all over it! I was also thinking about the HUGE customer base they will have in the UK, and surely it must be close to having a monopoly?!

[act smiley]

Er, no. They're a huuuge company but so are the other major banks like Lloyds Group (Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland), RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland, Natwest, loads of insurance companies like Direct Line, ABN AMRO, etc. etc.), etc. and they don't have much other high-street presence in the UK.

[City Fan]

and surely it must be close to having a monopoly?!

One firm dominating the market? I don't think so.

[Ultra]

Doesn't bother me at all. There is so much M&A in banking anyway, and if Santander hadn't bought them they'd be bust anyway.

The only thing that does bother me if they are integrating the brands is - what happens where there is a B&B next to an A&L? Or in the same town? Does one close now? Or will they continue to act as seperate entities like First Direct and HSBC?

Job losses come to mind.

It said on the news that all branches would stay open, thus removing the threat of widespread job losses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8069648.stm

[Monk]

surely it must be close to having a monopoly?!

I'm sure they have a pretty large market share - but Monopoly? No way. Not in this country.

Glad to hear no job cuts. I wouldn't be suprised if they very clearly segregate what each bank offers. They are too similar otherwise.

[James.]

One firm dominating the market? I don't think so.

Technically a monopoly is considered 25% of the market share.

[Hitesh]

Technically a monopoly is considered 25% of the market share.

Yeah, I was thinking more on those lines and about customers having less choice.

[Monk]

Banking goes through phases of diversification and consolidation. No prizes for guessing what we're in at the moment.

Ultimately there is still a lot of competition, and I don't think B&B and A&L single handedly provided an alternative to people, but I recognise what you are saying.

[Shrenchel]

.................but they'll still charge you to withdraw your money in Spain!!!!

If the EU wanted to do something useful for a change maybe putting a stop to this shambolic practice would be a start.

Just get a nationwide account for holidays. Doubt the EU will ever do anything about it, in quite a few countries (Spain for instance) you get charged for using a cashpoint that isn't of the bank you have your account with so they're not really treating tourists any differently from their own people.

[Shrenchel]

Oh didnt see Lisa and Monk already mentioned nationwide.

I swear it's still valid outside of Europe though. Didnt charge me in Morocco a few weeks back.

[Lillehamring]

can't see many people rushing out to bank with 'santander',

if it wasn't for my stupid overdraft, i'd get rid....

just hope my santander shares go up in value

[Monk]

FYI

[Shrenchel]

Just get the cirrus card instead of the Visa innit. Thats what Ive got. Works in 90% of cashpoints abroad.

[Guest]

One other thing, I am sure that in most other countries, people pay fees for their banking, so being charged a transaction fee would be quite normal for them.

[Lillehamring]

One other thing, I am sure that in most other countries, people pay fees for their banking, so being charged a transaction fee would be quite normal for them.

yup, we even used to get charged for debit card purchases in shops but they've ditched them all now

[Jordan]

It said on the news that all branches would stay open, thus removing the threat of widespread job losses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8069648.stm

I work for a large American bank that was bought by another large bank recently, and the merger process is underway with full banking and brand integration to be finished in 2010 or 2011. I don't know much about what's going on behind the scenes at A&L and B&B, but I can assume a lot of employees there are under a lot of pressure.

There may not be massive layoffs in store, but jobs will be eliminated. You won't see this in plain daylight, as most early job losses will be in the offices, not the branches. Santander will not need two or three persons selling the same mortgage rates in the same community. If more than one of the Santander family banks work with the same credit card lender (say, MBNA), then those departments will all be hollowed out and merged into one unit. They'll only need one deparment for everything else that doesn't have to do with sales (for example, operational soundness areas like loss prevention and auditing, marketing, legal).

Keeping all of the branches sounds well and good, but there's too much overlap between each bank's respective footprint for this to be a sound plan for the long term. It doesn't make sense to have branches so close together. Eventually, some of those branches will have to close in order to save costs. Santander are smart not to say this, as the public is already jittery about the current state of banking. And if Santander is a huge, healthy bank that can handle the crap ledger sheets they just bought in the UK, I don't think many people will worry to much about the brand name changes.