This is a list of banks operating in the United Kingdom.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom.
British banking has been highly consolidated since the early 20th century. Unlike some other major economies, the UK does not have a major stratum of independent local banks. The number of independent banks shrank further during 2008: Northern Rock was nationalised by the UK Government (and is now owned by Virgin Money), followed by Bradford & Bingley; Alliance & Leicester was acquired by Santander, who merged it into Santander UK. On 18 September 2008, Lloyds TSB plc entered into a confirmed agreement to take over HBOS plc, which took effect on 19 January 2009, when HBOS was acquired and folded into Lloyds Banking Group. [1] [2] [3]
The retail and commercial banking markets are dominated by HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Spanish-owned Santander UK (most of these companies operate more than one banking brand in the UK).
| Bank | Headquarters | Market value (£bn) As of 31 May 2019 [4] | Total assets (£bn) As of 31 December 2018 [5] |
|---|---|---|---|
| HSBC Holdings | London, England | 131 | 1,998 |
| Lloyds Banking Group [lower-alpha 1] | London, England | 40 | 794 |
| NatWest Group [lower-alpha 2] | Edinburgh, Scotland | 26.2 | 691 |
| Barclays | London, England | 25 | 873 |
A full list of businesses considered banks by the Prudential Regulation Authority are listed in the table below. The list is based on the definition of 'bank' in the glossary of the PRA Handbook. [8]
There is also a government-run savings bank called National Savings and Investments.
These banks provide retail services to the general public. Retail banks are usually known as High street banks as they traditionally had multiple branch locations in the cities and towns across the UK. However 40% of branches closed between 2012 and 2022 . [10] Four British retail banks have never had a physical branch presence.
The retail and commercial banking markets are dominated by five big banks. HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Spanish-owned Santander UK who operate more than one banking brand in the UK.
| Bank | Year Est. | Headquarters | Total assets (£bn) | Staff | Branches in UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atom Bank | 2013 | Durham, England | 2.8 [11] | 357 [12] | Online only |
| Bank of Ireland UK | 1783 | London, England | 1,700 | ||
| Barclays | 1690 | London, England | 873 | 347 | |
| HSBC UK | 1865 | London, England | 1,998 | 327 | |
| Danske Bank UK | 1824 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | |||
| Lloyds Banking Group† [lower-alpha 1] | 2009 | Edinburgh, Scotland, Registered office Operational headquarters | 794 | 1195 | |
| Metro Bank | 2010 | London, England | 21.6 | 2,831 | 76 |
| Monzo | 2015 | London, England | 0.6 | 2,432 | Online only |
| NatWest Group†† [lower-alpha 2] | 1968 | Edinburgh, Scotland | 691.0 | 523 | |
| Santander UK | 2010 | London, England | 231 | 25,872 | 456 |
| Starling Bank | 2014 | London, England | 12.8 [14] | 2,700 | Online only |
| Tandem Bank | 2015 | London, England | 0.5 [15] | Online only | |
| The Co-operative Bank | 1872 | Manchester, England | 25.5 [16] | 3,350 | 77 |
| TSB Bank | 1810 (reestablished 2013) | Edinburgh, Scotland | 7,000 | 212 | |
| Virgin Money UK plc | 2015 | Glasgow, Scotland | 90.5 | 91 |
There are a number of other retail banking businesses owned by retailers including:
The other main class of consumer financial service organisation in the United Kingdom is the building society. The building society sector has become much smaller with fewer building societies. This was caused, firstly, a number of building societies demutualising in the 1980s and 1990s and subsequently, taken over by banks. Secondly, there has been ongoing consolidation via mergers between societies.
There are 42 building societies in the UK as of 2021 which provide retail banking services to the general public. The five largest as of October 2020 are:
| Name | Year Est. | Headquarters | Total Assets (£bn) | Employees | Branches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | 1846 | Swindon, England, UK | 208 [17] | 18,333 | 606 |
| Coventry Building Society | 1884 | Coventry, England, UK | 49 | 2,700 | 89 |
| Yorkshire Building Society (also own Chelsea Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, Accord Mortgages and Egg) | 1864 | Bradford, West Yorkshire, England | 39.6 | 3,300 | 231 |
| Skipton Building Society | 1853 | Skipton, England | 17.5 | 1,772 | 98 |
| Leeds Building Society | 1875 | Leeds, England | 20.8 | 1,426 | 65 |
The Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695 to develop Scotland's trade with other countries, and aimed to create a stable banking system in the Kingdom of Scotland.
Halifax is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.
NatWest Group PLC is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies.
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an extensive network of branches and ATMs in England and Wales and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services.
The Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) was a British financial institution that operated between 1810 and 1995 when it was merged with Lloyds Bank. Trustee savings banks originated to accept savings deposits from those with moderate means. Their shares were not traded on the stock market but, unlike mutually held building societies, depositors had no voting rights; nor did they have the power to direct the financial and managerial goals of the organisation. Directors were appointed as trustees on a voluntary basis. The first trustee savings bank was established by Rev. Henry Duncan of Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire for his poorest parishioners in 1810, with its sole purpose being to serve the local people in the community. Between 1970 and 1985, the various trustee savings banks in the United Kingdom were amalgamated into a single institution named TSB Group plc, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In 1995, the TSB merged with Lloyds Bank to form Lloyds TSB, at that point the largest bank in the UK by market share and the second-largest by market capitalisation.
Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc, formerly Irish Life and Permanent plc is a provider of personal financial services in Ireland. Irish Life Assurance plc and the Irish Permanent Building Society merged to form the Irish Life and Permanent Group in 1999 and the merged entity acquired the Trustee Savings Bank in 2001. The group has no connection to the UK's TSB Bank.
Birmingham Midshires is an online trading name of Bank of Scotland plc. It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton. It previously had 67 branches throughout England and Wales. Previously, Birmingham Midshires was a building society, known as the Birmingham Midshires Building Society.
Hill Samuel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group's Offshore Private Banking unit. It was formerly a leading British merchant bank and financial services firm before the takeover by TSB Group Plc. in 1987, which itself merged with Lloyds Bank to become Lloyds TSB in 1995.
The Big Four is the colloquial name given to the four main banks in several countries where the banking industry is dominated by just four institutions and where the phrase has thus gained relevance. Some countries include more or fewer institutions in such rankings, leading to other names such as Big Three, Big Five, or Big Six.
The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 is a local Act of Parliament, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2006. The aim of the act was to provide HBOS plc, a banking and insurance group in the UK, the legal authority to reorganise its subsidiaries into a simplified structure. It came into effect on 17 September 2007.
HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands in the UK, as well as HBOS Australia and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited, the group's insurance division.
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank was founded in 1765 but the wider Group's heritage extends over 320 years, dating back to the founding of the Bank of Scotland by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695.
Santander UK plc is a British bank, wholly owned by the Spanish Santander Group. Santander UK plc manages its affairs autonomously, with its own local management team, responsible solely for its performance.
Cheltenham & Gloucester plc (C&G) was a mortgage and savings provider in the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group. C&G specialised in mortgages and savings products. Previously, C&G was a building society, the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society. Its headquarters were in Barnwood, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. C&G was closed to new mortgage and savings business on 9 September 2013.
TSB Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been a subsidiary of Sabadell Group since 2015.
Lloyds Bank is a retail bank in the United Kingdom established in 1765, known as Lloyds TSB from 1998 to 2013
Sabadell Solbank was a Spanish bank owned by Banco de Sabadell, which focussed on retail banking for Europeans living in the coastal areas of southern Spain. In 2014, it was fully integrated into the parent company.
Dame Susan Ilene Rice, Lady Rice, is a British banker, company and charity director and Chair of Scottish Water, Business Stream, North American Income Trust, and non-executive director of the Office for Budget Responsibility. In 2000 she became the first women to lead a British clearing bank.
