Abbey (bank)

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Abbey National plc (trading as Abbey) is the United Kingdom's sixth biggest bank, and Europe's second largest mortgage lender, after Halifax (part of the HBOS Group). Abbey was previously known as Abbey National, changing its name in 2003 in a rebranding effort. It still trades formally as Abbey National plc, but is now a subsidiary of Banco Santander Central Hispano SA (BSCH).

Abbey's registered office is in London and its effective Head Office is in Milton Keynes. Its savings and banking administration departments are both in Bradford, with its mortgage centre being based in Thornaby-on-Tees (which is rumoured to be under threat of closure [1]). Abbey currently has Banking Contact Centres in Sheffield and Glasgow. Business Banking operations, both administrative and telephony, are also based in Glasgow, having been moved from Taunton and Newport early in 2005.

Abbey previously operated contact centres in Derby, Warrington and Gateshead. The Derby and Warrington centres were closed as part of a cost cutting execise. Those jobs moved to Bangalore and Pune, India. Following the takeover by Banco Santander, the Gateshead operations also closed in March 2005.

[edit] Facts

• It was the first of the UK building societies to demutualise, which it did in July 1989, floating at £1.30 per share on the London Stock Exchange.
• Abbey National took over the Bradford-based National & Provincial Building Society in 1995.
• Abbey National shares peaked at more than £14 in 2000, before the stock market began a long decline.
• As a result of its conversion to a bank, Abbey National plc had an unusually large number of small shareholders; approximately 1.8 million in total.
• Abbey National changed its trademark to Abbey in 2003, (although it remained registered as Abbey National plc); a change prompted by Luqman Arnold (then Chief Executive) after several years of loss-making. The name could not be legally changed as the name Abbey plc was already taken by an Irish property development company, also listed on the London Stock Exchange.
• It is the first British bank to be owned by an overseas banking organisation.

[edit] History

The Abbey Road and St John's Wood Mutual Benefit Building Society was founded in 1874, based in a Baptist church in Kilburn. The society became the Abbey National Building Society following the merger of the Abbey Road Building Society with the National Building Society in 1944.<ref>Brewer's Britain and Ireland, compiled by John Ayto and Ian Crofton, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, ISBN 0-304-3535-X</ref>

During the 1970s and 1980s, Abbey National gained a reputation for innovation and, sometimes disruptive, change. It was an early user of computer systems and in the late 1970s, all branches became on-line to a real-time system that maintained customer accounts. Under Chief General Manager Clive Thornton, new types of savings accounts were introduced as well as a cheque account.

The administration of the cheque account was restricted by building society rules and the need to find a partner that could clear Abbey's cheques (the Co-operative Bank). Later, Abbey became a full member of the BACS and APACS.

Thornton also acted to break the building societies' interest rate cartel.

In 12 July 1989, the Abbey National Building Society de-mutualised and became a public limited company (Abbey National plc), floated on the London Stock Exchange. At flotation, the share price was £1.30. The de-mutualisation process was marred by the discovery of a large number of undelivered share certificates awaiting destruction at a contractor's premises.

In the years which followed, Abbey pursued growth and diversification by acquisition:

• Two life assurance companies were demutualised and acquired, enabling Abbey to pursue the bancassurance model: Scottish Mutual in 1992 and Scottish Provident in 2001.
• In August 1996, Abbey National merged with the National and Provincial Building Society increasing the branch network by almost two hundred and bringing in three million more customers.

Abbey also ventured into the wholesale loans business. At first this provided a good profit stream, despite the criticisms of some analysts. This eventually undid the company, however, when Enron turned out to be unsafe and the "9/11" attacks in New York damaged confidence in various financial areas. From this point, Abbey struggled from financial losses and a tarnished image. The Chief Executive, Ian Harley - a long-time Abbey employee, eventually resigned and his post was filled by an outsider, Luqman Arnold. Re-structuring and reassessment followed.

The brand name was changed on the 25 September 2003 to Abbey along with a new look and the "turning banking on its head" initiative.

On 26 July 2004 Abbey National plc and Banco Santander Central Hispano, SA announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Banco Santander of Abbey. Following shareholders' approval at Abbey's (despite vocal opposition from most of those present) and Santander's EGMs, the acquisition was formally approved by the courts and Abbey became part of the Grupo Santander on 12 November, 2004.

[edit] "Turning banking on its head"

The change brought about by the former Chief Executive Luqman Arnold was named as "turning banking on its head" and was an initiative where the organisation returned to basics in a way. The name was shortened, the couple under an umbrella logo was dropped and literature regarding accounts and information was simplified.

[edit] Logos past and present

The current Abbey logo, incorporating the Abbey name and Santander flame logo

The previous logo with the small a, created as part of the "Turning banking on its head" initiative

The new font used by Abbey National before the major image change

The original Abbey National couple beneath umbrella logo

[edit] The takeover by Santander

• In 2004, Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank, acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion (or £6.50 per share). Shareholders approved the takeover of Abbey in October 2004 at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
• Abbey National plc was delisted and removed from the FTSE 100 Index on 12 November 2004 at close of trading, having successfully completed the takeover by the Spanish bank. It had been listed for more than 15 years on the London Stock Exchange (previously listed as LSE:ANL). Abbey National shareholders swapped one share in Abbey National for one of the Spanish bank's shares, and got paid a special cash dividend of 31 pence per share on 14 December 2004.
• As of November 2004 the Chief Executive is Francisco Gomez-Roldan, with Luqman Arnold leaving with a rumoured £5 million, made up of pay off and share options.
• Santander listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange as a secondary listing in July 2005.

[edit] Bank Charges

Of recent times the Abbey has come under pressure from its customers and the OFT over the level of charges it levies for items such as overdraft referrals, which the bank claims to be a legitimate service. Recently, Abbey paid a relatively large settlement to Stephen Hone, a law student who had sued the bank for the return of charges he claimed were unlawful. This has lead to a series of many further claims and court actions against the Abbey for the return of bank charges and to date the bank has settled them all rather than go to court^{[citation needed]}. In one case in May of 2006 the Bank was even ordered by a court to make a full discloure which would have included damaging revelations of its bank charges regime^{[citation needed]}. The bank is presently facing several related claims for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] External links

• Abbey retail banking website
• About Abbey
• Information about Abbey's association with Sherlock Holmes
• Yahoo! - Abbey National plc Company Profile

[edit] References

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