Birmingham Midshires

funkywombats

Hi. Apologies if this is a stupid question.

As the Lloyds and HBOS merger is to go ahead, does anyone know whether Lloyds and Birmingham Midshires are likely to have separate banking licences after the merger? It would be good to know whether the FSCS would treat them as separate banks and guarantee £50,000 per bank.

Thanks in advance.

Baldur

Birmingham Midshires are not currently separately authorised - they come under the Halifax authorisation, why would they be separately authorised after the merger?

Calchas

Will Lloyds TSB and HBOS be treated differently?

This may be the question the original poster intended.

funkywombats

Thanks Calchas - that was the question I should have asked.

Baldur

funkywombats wrote: »

Thanks Calchas - that was the question I should have asked.

That remains to be seen - the merger hasn't even been voted on by LTSB shareholders yet.

opinions4u

Baldur wrote: »

why would they be separately authorised after the merger?

1. To reduce the risk of customers who are currently with both banks withdrawing funds.

2. To match the competitive advantage that RBS and Nat West currently have.

3. Because merger does not automatically mean merger of banking licence.

4. To allow them to offer a dual-licence choice to attract up to £200k from new joint savers with no risk.

They would be barking mad to merge the HBOS/Lloyds banking licences post merger!

Oblivion

DimSum wrote: »

Are people able to log into their account today? Phone support closed today.

If you are referring to Birmingham Midshires, then yes, I've just successfully logged in with no issues.

Dave.

Stompa

Oblivion wrote: »

If you are referring to Birmingham Midshires, then yes, I've just successfully logged in with no issues.

Yes, me too. Disappointing (though hardly unexpected) to find that they've dropped rates.

Stompa

sloughflint wrote: »

Which now makes the 6.25% Halifax Guaranteed saver reward .....

Looks like it's now 6.00% (not sure about the 12% on the regular saver). Having done a quick trawl through my various accounts this morning most seem to have now dropped.