TSB to return as UK 3rd national highstreet bank, float 2014

opinions4u

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

one has to assume that they've mostly put branches etc that they regard as duds in "TSB".

The EU made absolutely sure that the average TSB branch had the same / better quality of customer base and loan book than those remaining with Lloyds.

TSB will be an unencumbered UK retail bank. It will be financially stronger, albeit on a smaller scale, than LBG. It's weakness will be its lack of diversity beyond retail banking - which many would say is a good thing.

grey_gym_sock

opinions4u wrote: »

The EU made absolutely sure that the average TSB branch had the same / better quality of customer base and loan book than those remaining with Lloyds.

yes, but who knows more about which branches and loans are good? lloyds, or whichever regulator was checking they did it correctly? it's a matter of judgement as well as numbers.

TSB will be an unencumbered UK retail bank. It will be financially stronger, albeit on a smaller scale, than LBG. It's weakness will be its lack of diversity beyond retail banking - which many would say is a good thing.

yes, that's all good. why can't we have lots more retail banks? 4 or 5 is not enough. they don't need to be that big.

Good_Goose

My account & mortgage is being forcibly moved to TSB against my will, so I will be closing it and moving to HSBC. Sod Lloyds and the EU dictating where I bank.

Thrugelmir

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

4 or 5 is not enough. they don't need to be that big.

RBS
Barclays
Co-Op
Nationwide
HSBC
Lloyds
TSB
Santander.

there's 7.

If RBS float away W&G there'll be 8.

Quite possibly too many.

opinions4u

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

yes, but who knows more about which branches and loans are good? lloyds, or whichever regulator was checking they did it correctly? it's a matter of judgement as well as numbers.

EU rules. EU checks. EU agreement.

yes, that's all good. why can't we have lots more retail banks? 4 or 5 is not enough. they don't need to be that big.

Off the top of my head:

LBG (Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland)
RBS (two brands, with divestment still likely)
HSBC (and First Direct)
Barclays
Santander
Co-op (and Smile)
TSB (when freed)
Virgin Money
Yorkshire Bank (and Clydesdale)
Metro Bank

Tesco, Sainsburys, Post Office, M&S too.

Then there's 45 building societies including Nationwide, Skipton and Yorkshire.

While I'd like more, the UK regulatory regime is geared towards the big boys. The small players have great difficulties implementing changes to rules efficiently when the big boys have the advantage of massive economies of scale.

EarthBoy

opinions4u wrote: »

The EU made absolutely sure that the average TSB branch had the same / better quality of customer base and loan book than those remaining with Lloyds.

I'm inclined to think that the EU didn't carry out thorough due diligence. The TSB includes all the Cheltenham and Gloucester branches which Lloyds Banking Group had decided to close down, -they had already fixed the closing date, until Lloyds had to be propped up with government funds.

If the C & G branches had a good quality of customer base and loan book then Lloyds would never have wanted to get rid of them; they could have just converted them all to LloydsTSB branches. As it is, when the EU ordered Lloyds to sell off a percentage of its business Lloyds used it as an opportunity to get rid of branches that it already wanted to close anyway.

The Verde sale also originally included Intelligent Finance, another dud brand, until the Co-op said they didn't want it.

grey_gym_sock

well, the total number of banks and building societies is much larger, but the smaller operators mostly seem to be on the defensive, perhaps due to increasing regulatory requirements. and their number keeps on reducing (via take-overs/mergers). there are a small number of big operators who are able to compete at national level.

nationwide are the only building society of comparable scale to the bigger banks.

co-op is rather smaller (and has recent problems, which make it hard to say whether it will survive in its current form).

virgin, yorkshire bank, and metro are much smaller.

maybe some of them, or the supermarkets' banks, will become more significant, but this is just speculation.

i'd call it at most 6 or 7 major players. why can't we 30 or 40? the current concentration has gone far beyond the point where you get significant economies of scale. perhaps it is cost of regulation.

Thrugelmir

EarthBoy wrote: »

-they had already fixed the closing date, until Lloyds had to be propped up with government funds.

Lloyds was a perfectly good bank until the HBOS saga.

Steve_xx

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Lloyds was a perfectly good bank until the HBOS saga.

One has to wonder how on earth Lloyds came to take HBOS on in the first place? How could LLoyds not have been aware of the state of HBOS? Nobody has ever explained that fully.

John1993_2

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I can understand that you can't talk confidential intra business but are you seriously telling me they are dictating who you can socialise with, informally, out of hours?

The golf courses would be empty.

Banks already do this. I was told over a year ago to drop my friends at other banks.

The idea that we are immune from rules or consequences is just so far from the truth nowadays. We've even lost our right to silence under questioning on matters relating to certain financial crimes, rights that even accused murderers still have.