Midland Bank will not be returning to our high streets after all ?

planteria

i'm surprised, but it's fine. and good news for us in The Midlands that the bank will be headquartered in Birmingham.

stclair

planteria wrote: »

i'm surprised, but it's fine. and good news for us in The Midlands that the bank will be headquartered in Birmingham.

Yes totally I must admit I'm tempted to apply for suitable positions when the change happens.

pinkdalek

Re the OP thread, it's a shame that Midland bank won't be returing to the high street because there are lots of empty shops nowadays in most towns/villages which could be used more productively.....

PeacefulWaters

pinkdalek wrote: »

Re the OP thread, it's a shame that Midland bank won't be returing to the high street because there are lots of empty shops nowadays in most towns/villages which could be used more productively.....

I'm not aware that HSBC rebranding included a branch expansion programme.

Paul_1977

Will the bank re-brand at all? Santander is called Santander UK but branded just Santander.

No changes at all.

colsten

It doesn't matter much as just about everyone in the UK will refer to them as HSBC in day-to-day use anyway. You would hope they have better sense than spending tens of millions on adding you-kayh to all the signs in their branches, letterheads , business cards, cheques, web pages etc etc. They will obviously have to make it clear in legal documents which part(s) of HSBC people are dealing with, but since HSBC UK Ltd has existed for eons, that should be a minor consideration. The important thing for us as retail customers is that our money will be legally ring-fenced from the investment and dealing transactions that HSBC choose to make.

gt94sss2

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

I'm not aware that HSBC rebranding included a branch expansion programme.

I believe one theory was that if HSBC rebranded its UK arm under a different name, this might throw into question their commitment to UK retail banking.

If so, and the UK retail arm subsequently floated or was sold off, the new owners might want a larger branch footprint..

Regards
Suil

Paul_1977

colsten wrote: »

It doesn't matter much as just about everyone in the UK will refer to them as HSBC in day-to-day use anyway. You would hope they have better sense than spending tens of millions on adding you-kayh to all the signs in their branches, letterheads , business cards, cheques, web pages etc etc. They will obviously have to make it clear in legal documents which part(s) of HSBC people are dealing with, but since HSBC UK Ltd has existed for eons, that should be a minor consideration. The important thing for us as retail customers is that our money will be legally ring-fenced from the investment and dealing transactions that HSBC choose to make.

My nan used to refer to the local HSBC as "Midlands" until it got closed down.

Many still refer to the local Santander as "Abbey".

Apparently the current review into UK retail banking is going to suggest (and force) some large banks to sell a chunk of their branches, so Midlands might not be dead yet.

Herbalus

Ring fencing the bank caused rumours of a sale, especially if the name change was significant. There would be an off the shelf bank with a new name, and no connection to its past.

I guess this puts end to that. HSBC UK seems very much business as usual. It's a legal change, as is required, but nobody will notice much.

It makes sense for them, as a large part of the international aspect is that HSBC is HSBC all over the world. It would be a right mess if it was HSBC in China, Midland in the UK, and Bank of Texas (for example) in the US - the Chinese HSBC premier customers wouldn't have a clue where to go if they were in the UK or America, and probably assume HSBC wasn't in those markets.

Herbalus

I just read the Sky article, and while I don't doubt it, I know somebody down the pub who works for HSBC and they've just told me they didn't get this internal memo last Thursday. So don't know what's going on with that.