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Abbey National

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Abbey National plc
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryFinance and Insurance
Founded1944
SuccessorSantander UK Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
Lord Burns, Chairman
António Horta-Osório, CEO
ProductsFinancial Services
Number of employees
20,000
ParentBanco Santander
Websitewww.abbey.com
Abbey Head office.
2 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London, NW1 3AN

Abbey, formerly Abbey National, is one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom. Abbey's registered office is in London (built on the site of the former Thames Television studios in Euston Road) and its main corporate centre is in Milton Keynes. Its savings and banking administration departments are both in Bradford, with a mortgage centre in Thornaby-on-Tees (which is rumoured to be under threat of closure [1]). Abbey currently has Banking Contact Centres in Sheffield, Belfast and Glasgow. Business Banking operations, both administrative and telephony, are also based in Glasgow, having been moved from Taunton and Newport early in 2005.

Abbey previously operated contact centres in Derby, Warrington and Gateshead. The Derby and Warrington centres were closed as part of a cost cutting exercise. Those jobs moved to Bangalore and Pune, India. Following the takeover by Banco Santander, the Gateshead operations also closed in March 2005. However, operations then returned to the UK at a later date

History

The Abbey Road & St John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society was founded in 1874, based in a Baptist church in Kilburn. The society became the Abbey National Building Society following the merger of the Abbey Road Building Society with the National Building Society in 1944.[2]

In 1932 the society moved into new headquarters, Abbey House, at 219 to 229 Baker Street, London, a site occupied until 2002. The site was thought to include 221B Baker Street, the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Abbey National gained a reputation for innovation and, sometimes disruptive, change. It was an early user of computer systems and in the late 1970s, all branches became on-line to a real-time system that maintained customer accounts. Under Chief General Manager Clive Thornton, new types of savings accounts were introduced as well as a cheque account. The administration of the cheque account was restricted by building society rules and the need to find a partner that could clear Abbey's cheques (the Co-operative Bank). Later, Abbey became a full member of the BACS and APACS. Thornton also acted to break the building societies' interest rate cartel.

In 12 July 1989, the Abbey National Building Society de-mutualised and became a public limited company (Abbey National plc), floated on the London Stock Exchange. At flotation, the share price was £1.30. The de-mutualisation process was marred by the discovery of a large number of undelivered share certificates awaiting destruction at a contractor's premises.

In the years which followed, Abbey pursued growth and diversification by acquisition:

  • By in 1994, Abbey National purchased “James Hay” one of the UK’s foremost independent provider of self-administered pensions and is one of the pioneer development of SIPP’s with the launch of the in 1996 of the James Hay SIPP. James Hay then went on to grow in straight and launched Abbey Wrap, the first Wrap a service in which IFA’s can keep the clients ISA’s, Peps, Offshore bonds and SIPP in one place. Abbey Wrap Managers was FSA approved in 2003. This in 2006 was re-launched as the James Hay Wrap.
  • Two life assurance companies were demutualised and acquired, Scottish Mutual in 1992 and Scottish Provident in 2001, which enabled Abbey to pursue the bancassurance model.
  • In August 1996, Abbey National merged with the National and Provincial Building Society, increasing its branch network by almost two hundred branches and bringing in three million more customers.
  • In June 2000 launched cahoot, Abbey's e-bank.

Abbey also ventured into the wholesale loans business. At first this provided a good profit stream, despite the criticisms of some analysts. This eventually undid the company, however, when Enron turned out to be unsafe and the "9/11" attacks in New York damaged confidence in various financial areas. From this point, Abbey struggled from financial losses and a tarnished image. The Chief Executive, Ian Harley - a long-time Abbey employee, eventually resigned and his post was filled by an outsider, Luqman Arnold. Re-structuring and reassessment followed.

The brand name was changed on the 25 September 2003 to Abbey along with a new look and the "turning banking on its head" initiative.

On 26 July 2004 Abbey National plc and Banco Santander Central Hispano, SA announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Banco Santander of Abbey. Following shareholders' approval at the EGMs of Abbey (95 per cent voted in favour, despite vocal opposition from most of those present) and Santander, the acquisition was formally approved by the courts and Abbey became part of Grupo Santander on 12 November 2004.

"Turning banking on its head"

The change brought about by the former Chief Executive Luqman Arnold was called "turning banking on its head" and was an initiative where the organisation returned to basics in a way. The name was shortened, the couple under an umbrella logo was dropped and literature regarding accounts and information was simplified.

Logos past and present

The takeover by Santander

  • In 2004, Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank, acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion (or £6.50 per share). Shareholders approved the takeover of Abbey in October 2004 at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
  • Abbey National plc was delisted and removed from the FTSE 100 Index on 12 November 2004 at close of trading, having successfully completed the takeover by the Spanish bank. It had been listed for more than 15 years on the London Stock Exchange (previously listed as LSE:ANL). Abbey National shareholders swapped one share in Abbey National for one of the Spanish bank's shares, and got paid a special cash dividend of 31 pence per share on 14 December 2004.
  • As of November 2004 the Chief Executive was Francisco Gómez-Roldán, with Luqman Arnold leaving with a rumoured £5 million, made up of pay off and share options.
  • Santander listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange as a secondary listing in July 2005.
  • Francisco Gómez-Roldán died suddenly in July 2006 - 3 weeks before being due to hand over as Chief Executive to Antonio Horta-Osorio who is now installed in the position.

Sale of Life Business

In June 2006 Abbey agreed to sell its life businesses to Resolution plc. The businesses sold to Resolution were Scottish Mutual Assurance, Scottish Provident Limited and Abbey National Life, two offshore life companies, Scottish Mutual International and Scottish Provident International Life Assurance Limited. Abbey retained all of its branch based investment and asset management business, James Hay, Abbeys self-invested personal pension company and James Hay Wrap.

Abbey errors in the 1980s

In July 2007 Abbey admitted that errors that it made in the 1980s have contributed to many borrowers mortgage terms being extended by up to 15 years. During this period- which saw considerable turbulence in interest rates- Abbey extended the terms on customers repayment style mortgages without their knowledge.

The Financial Ombudsman Service has stated that Abbey customers may be eligible for compensation. [3]

References

  1. ^ "Concern for 700 call centre jobs with Abbey cutbacks". The Northern Echo. 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2007-07-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Brewer's Britain and Ireland, compiled by John Ayto and Ian Crofton, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, ISBN 030435385X
  3. ^ Abbey Mortgage Errors Could Hit Consumers
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