British owned banks for current account?

[Deleted User]

edited for privacy

eskbanker

I suspect you'll need to go a long way down the list to some small niche players to reach anything meeting all of those criteria, as they eliminate the likes of Lloyds group, RBS/NatWest, HSBC group, Barclays, Santander, Co-op, etc....

JuicyJesus

pioruns wrote: »

Nationwide (perfectly fine for my criteria so it will stay). My criteria are simple, I want one owned by british capital, to not share banking license with my other banks (so I have separate FSCS cover with each of them), and not to be tangled by any controversy or bailouts. I just want normal honest bank, if such thing exists.

Nationwide is about all that fits that. That or local credit unions (who tend to have a very limited range of current account services, if any.) The Co-op is now owned by venture capital but would previously have fit that criteria.

Your criteria are pretty arbitrary though and you're just rather pointlessly restricting the number of institutions you can use down to essentially one. Your choice obviously, but it's difficult to see how the ultimate ownership of the bank matters (e.g. HSBC nee the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation is domiciled in the UK, but is owned by thousands if not hundreds of thousands of individual share owners distributed across the world.)

[Deleted User]

Thanks for your answers. I agree, my criteria are somewhat arbitrary, but I just want UK owned bank without pile of controversy and lost lawsuits around it.
If there isn't anything to fit my criteria anymore, I can settle to good bank traded on FTSE & at least headquartered in the UK, why not...
Before I posted this, I had a read about HSBC:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Controversies
Just the headlines for TL;DR:

• 5 Controversies
  • 5.1 Money laundering (2003, 2010, 2012 and 2015)
  • 5.2 US Senate investigation (2012)
  • 5.3 Forex, Libor and Euribor scandals (2014)
  • 5.4 Tax avoidance schemes (2015)
  • 5.5 $3.5 billion currency scheme (2016)
  • 5.6 Defense industry (2018)
  • 5.7 Other
    • 5.7.1 Data loss (2008)
    • 5.7.2 Breaching Iran sanctions for Huawei (2009 - 2014)
    • 5.7.3 Gaddafi Libya claims (2011)
    • 5.7.4 Deforestation claims (2012, 2018)
    • 5.7.5 Overzealous Money-laundering policies (2014)
    • 5.7.6 North London Central Mosque and Hamas funding (2014)
    • 5.7.7 Payments-processing failures (2015)

Check this out... Not sure if I want this bank to be financial institution of my choice.

JuicyJesus

pioruns wrote: »

Thanks for your answers. I agree, my criteria are somewhat arbitrary, but I just want UK owned bank without pile of controversy and lost lawsuits around it.

And you have basically one available to you then. That's my point rather... not saying that HSBC are good or have a good history, just that if you're only going to allow banks that haven't had controversies or bailouts or foreign ownership you don't have many choices.

There's also Monzo and Starling I suppose, but they're not high-street banks at all and are purely app-based.

[Deleted User]

In that case I hope Tesco bank will not fold that quickly, as If no other choice is found, then this can become on main account.


Which bank is UK owned and had a bailout? RBS and Lloyds group, right?


Monzo and Starling, do they have online access via webpage, not just phone app? I have revolut card but it's purely app-based. I could do if bank at least had a online webpage access (so I can print statements and so on) and direct debits + card.

Zanderman

Not sure you'll find any bank if you're that fussy!
They all have skeletons in the cupboard.
If you don't want to have dealings with them then you'll probably have to keep your money under the mattress.
Personally I don't see a problem - you, as a personal customer, are not endorsing them - you're just using their services.
And, unless you have debts, overdrafts etc with them, you are, even with the low interest rates these days, getting a good deal as most current accounts are free - and that is very good value. An in-credit customer probably costs most banks money rather than makes them money. So think of it as you taking advantage of them.

And banks aren't alone in dodgy practices - indeed virtually every large business has something to hide/something unethical - so if you won't use the banks on principle why do you use everything else - supermarkets, car manufacturers, train operators, council services, all clothing manufacturers etc etc etc.

colsten

Strange anyone could think that retail banks, of all companies, would be entirely owned by British capital (however that might be defined). Or that this would make them immune from controversies etc.

[Deleted User]

Haha thanks maybe I am too fussy, but I am just trying to find lesser evil No harm in that! And we can have nice conversation of the forums in effort to find that. I am not limiting or cutting myself off completely, just trying to find a better one. TSB is infested with bugs, recently they had to send me paper statements because printing (generating) them online was impossible, would you believe it :rotfl::TIs there any more banks publicly listed on FTSE? Maybe I will find my lesser evil there.

JuicyJesus

pioruns wrote: »

Monzo and Starling, do they have online access via webpage, not just phone app? I have revolut card but it's purely app-based. I could do if bank at least had a online webpage access (so I can print statements and so on) and direct debits + card.

Starling and Monzo are purely app based. There is a "web" Monzo but this is extremely limited and is purely for reporting cards lost and seeing recent transactions, nothing more complicated than that. It's intended only for emergencies.

colsten

pioruns wrote: »

Monzo and Starling, do they have online access via webpage, not just phone app? I have revolut card but it's purely app-based. I could do if bank at least had a online webpage access (so I can print statements and so on) and direct debits + card.

As for statements, the functionality offered for that by Starling is amazing. I have a Monzo account, too, but don't use it, so I'm not sure how they handle it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similarly amazing.

As they are fully-fledged retail banks, it goes without saying that you can do DDs and SOs and one-off payments through the apps, and naturally, the accounts come with debit cards.