How safe are UK Banks?

tradetime

Emmalou wrote: »

Sorry Flynn, just to be clear, so the Halifax and the Halifax Bank of Scotland are two different banks?

I am reading this thread with interest as I have rather more than 35K sitting in a Halifax savings account waiting to pay for my ongoing extension. Just a bit worried it may not be safe!

No, HBOS eqauls H for Halifax and BOS for Bank of Scotland once upon a time they were two separate entities, now they are one financial institution.

ianmr65

As well as Sainsbury's Bank, Birminham Midshires...

Meltdown_2

Well, not Sainsbury's Bank ... strictly speaking.
Sainsbury's Bank is (or so I understand from various places) a joint venture between Sainsbury's (the supermarket) and HBOS (see above ), rather than a wholly-owned HBOS operation. It has a separate FSA authorisation (184514) to that of the HBOS bits, which now all operate under the Bank of Scotland authorisation (169628).

As the MSE article (with its table of savings providers, suitably colour-coded) shows, the HBOS group also covers The AA, Saga, and Intelligent Finance - as well as Birmingham Midshires (as mentioned by ianmr65).

talksalot81

Oh the irony....

"As safe as houses"

notis7

The rumours about HBOS are completely unfounded and make no sense.....they are one of the safest banks as they are the UKs biggest savings providers and are the bank who were the least affected from the liquidity crisis and the credit crunch compaired to the rst of the big banks....

Typical greedy stockbrockers wanting to make a couple of million extra for easter weekends i think

setmefree

They are completely safe as long as the Bank of England throw our Tax Payers money at them like confetti,after all what else do we pay taxes for. it ain't as if many people are below the poverty line is it

Meltdown_2

I think a lot of the worries about HBOS (prior to these latest totally unfounded rumours etc) were linked to Halifax being the largest mortgage provider in the UK.
(Don't actually know if they are, but that's what the BBC said - and if you can't trust them ...)

Edit: Yep, that's what it says on the Halifax website :

"As the UK's No.1 mortgage lender*, ...

* based on Halifax's share of the total mortgage debt and the amount of the average UK mortgage."

notis7

I dont agree - there would be no need for funding by HBOS - they have the largest pot of savings than anyone else with the lowest reported failings due to credit crunch!!!!

If they were in trouble - they would be going out guns blazing with the best rate products all over....like some other small banks!

notis7

Meltdown wrote: »

I think a lot of the worries about HBOS (prior to these latest totally unfounded rumours etc) were linked to Halifax being the largest mortgage provider in the UK.
(Don't actually know if they are, but that's what I heard on the BBC - and if you can't trust them ...)

Yes - Halifax are the biggest mortgage provider in the UK...but they were in trouble because they could not grow market share in a new scheme they were counting on - they came out with outrageous rates thinking we would be stupid enough to take them on board....

But as they were hit by this before the credit crunch they turned out to be one of the safest players as they changed their business from mortgages to corporate lending.....

I have invested a lot of time and energy in reading loads of reports on our big banks....I am more worried about smaller banks!

Meltdown_2

notis7 wrote: »

Yes - Halifax are the biggest mortgage provider in the UK...but they were in trouble because they could not grow market share in a new scheme they were counting on - they came out with outrageous rates thinking we would be stupid enough to take them on board....

?

But as they were hit by this before the credit crunch they turned out to be one of the safest players as they changed their business from mortgages to corporate lending.....

Corporate lending ... Yes, that's safe. :eek:

I have invested a lot of time and energy in reading loads of reports on our big banks....I am more worried about smaller banks!

Pray tell ...