RBS in England to Become Williams & Glynn's?

opinions4u

chambta wrote: »

My understanding also. Odd given the whole point of receiving the state aid was to benefit from it. If put up for sale as a going concern who could possibly buy that separated business? Santander? Another foreign owner bank looking for expansion into the UK?

T E S C O

I would be pretty sure Tesco or Virgin would be interested in either RBS or Halifax came on the market. And Benny Higgins (now at Tesco Personal Finance) knows both those business rather well.

And you know what, I think the competitive factor of having more players in the market would be good for everybody.

I think the best outcome would be for these businesses to be spun off on a free-standing basis though, splitting the shareholdings between existing business and spun off business. Not sure how practical that is from a balance sheet perspective though.

chambta

opinions4u wrote: »

T E S C O

I would be pretty sure Tesco or Virgin would be interested in either RBS or Halifax came on the market. And Benny Higgins (now at Tesco Personal Finance) knows both those business rather well.

And you know what, I think the competitive factor of having more players in the market would be good for everybody.

Tesco is an interesting call. As you say Benny Higgins was heavily involved in RBS retail and I'm sure I've read Tesco have stated that they want to get involved in the current account market.

Extant

I'd be surprised if Tesco jumped in so deep so quick, to be honest.

They'd end up with a lot of retail floorspace distinct from their key brand (i.e. groceries) and face a massive re-branding and re-tooling effort to be able to run it. On top of that, they'd be limiting their "banking brand" to the small set of branches (if they were going to use their existing stores, they could do so without needing the branches - they're plentiful enough and with good high street presence through Metro/Express stores already). I'd bet heavily against it.

chambta

Seems it's all a done deal now and will be announced on Tuesday. As someone employed by RBS in its English branch network it's a worrying time.

97trophy

chambta wrote: »

As someone employed by RBS in its English branch network it's a worrying time.

Why?

Your job will be safe.

chambta

97trophy wrote: »

Why?

Your job will be safe.

Likely to be. For now. But that's as far as it goes.

M_Thomson

97trophy wrote: »

Why?

Your job will be safe.

How do you know?

chambta

M_Thomson wrote: »

How do you know?

He doesn't. I wonder if this will prompt requests to transfer across the brands to the 'safety' of Natwest where vacancies exist.

Errata

chambta wrote: »

Seems it's all a done deal now and will be announced on Tuesday. As someone employed by RBS in its English branch network it's a worrying time.

I hope things turn out well for you. I signed up with National Provincial, which became Natwest, which became RBS which apparently will now become something else. But my branch premises have stayed the same throughout.

97trophy

chambta wrote: »

He doesn't. I wonder if this will prompt requests to transfer across the brands to the 'safety' of Natwest where vacancies exist.

IMO it makes sense that any new bank, such as W&Glyns will be given a "safe" send off.