RBS branch sale may be back on with Santander

chambta

colsten wrote: »

That pre-supposes that the right number of branches were present at the time, and that they were needed for the foreseeable future.

Did the locals have the skills and experience to determine the right number of branches, and did they know anything about the state of A&L and B&B were in? Did they ask themselves why B&B and A&L were up for sale / needed rescue in the first instance? And are you sure there was no hostility against 'foreigners' involved?

At the time Santander's service reputation was very poor.

When speaking to colleagues today there were various versions of surprise at the press stories, the general theme being that Santander have a cheek returning 3+ years after causing huge uncertainty by pulling out of a 3/4 done deal.

We'd ordered Santander uniform last time!

planteria

colsten wrote: »

..Similar would apply if the purchaser was Virgin Money, or some other smaller bank.

far more so surely, as Virgin would be competing with Santander. as it stands Virgin are barely a player.

planteria

i have dipped in & out of Santander for Current Accounts and Credit Cards over the years, and i have found them to be poor CS-wise. day-to-day tends to be ok, but if there is a problem/query i have found them to be painful, with HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds on a different level.

colsten wrote: »

Possible. Very possible. Even though Santander UK is about as british as you can get.

Perhaps. But there are always going to be people who are aware that, and care that, the parent company is based in Spain rather than the UK.