Alliance & Leicester
 | |
| Company type | Wholly-owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters |  Narborough, Leicestershire, England, UK |
Key people | Lord Burns, Chairman António Horta-Osório, CEO, Roy Brown, Deputy Chairman David Bennett, Executive Officer[1] |
| Products | Banking, insurance |
| Revenue | £4,167m (2007) |
| £417m (2007) | |
| £296m (2007) | |
Number of employees | circa 6,000 |
| Parent | Grupo Santander (Santander UK) |
| Subsidiaries | Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Alliance & Leicester International |
| Website | www.alliance-leicester.co.uk |
Alliance & Leicester is a British bank and former building society owned by Grupo Santander. Alliance & Leicester will be rebranded as Santander by the end of November 2010 in line with other subsidiaries.[2][3]
Formed in 1985 through a merger of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society, Alliance & Leicester became a bank in 1997 when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange. Formerly listed in the FTSE 250 Index, having been a FTSE 100 constituent from April 1997 to June 2008, Alliance & Leicester was acquired by the Spanish firm Banco Santander in October 2008.
History
Early history
The former building society was formed by the merger of the Alliance Building Society (originally based in and called the Brighton & Sussex) and the Leicester Building Society on 1 October 1985.[4] In 1990, the society acquired Girobank, a major provider of cash-handling services to the government and large companies and current accounts, from the Post Office.[4] With other large building societies such as Halifax and Woolwich, Alliance & Leicester decided to float on the London Stock Exchange, generating windfall payments to members worth up to £5,000 each. Flotation took place on 21 April 1997.[5]
Takeover
On 14 July 2008 the board of A&L recommended that shareholders accept a takeover bid from Banco Santander for around £1.26 billion.[3] This recommendation was ratified by shareholders at meetings on 16 September 2008.[6] The takeover took effect on 10 October 2008 when shares of the company were delisted from the London Stock Exchange.[7]
The bank is set to merge into Santander UK plc by the end of 2010 once computer systems are aligned between the two banks. Until this time, Alliance & Leicester will continue as a separate institution with its own banking licence.[8] Abbey and the Bradford & Bingley savings business were rebranded in January 2010.[9]
Operations
The four business sectors are:
The Group provides general insurance, life assurance, unit trusts, personal current accounts and credit cards, asset financing and commercial lending. Its main retail business is in the United Kingdom concentrating on mortgages, current accounts, savings and personal loans. The Group is also endeavouring to expand its commercial operations through Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank.
The Group provided retail credit cards through a partnership with MBNA until it was bought by Grupo Santander. Cards were subsequently reissued with MBNA branding, while Alliance & Leicester began solely providing Santander branded credit cards, provided by Santander Cards Limited.[10][11]
Selected investment products also provided by Abbey are available, together with those provided by Legal & General, which the bank has had a partnership with. Zurich provided insurance products but these have largely been phased out in favour of those provided by Santander.
Alliance & Leicester's headquarters are in Carlton Park, a business park in Narborough, south of Leicester in England. The Group also has premises in Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan, Leeds, Ashford and Belfast, and all its contact centres are UK based. The bank announced it would be closing its Heritage House site in Leicester with the aim of transfering jobs to other areas.[12]
Alliance & Leicester operates an international subsidiary based on the Isle of Man.
References
- ^ Alliance & Leicester plc: Board of Directors Business Week
- ^ Santander's decision to rename Alliance & Leicester 'disappointing' This is Business - East Midlands. 28 May 2009
- ^ a b "Santander scraps UK bank brands". BBC News. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-23. Cite error: The named reference "BBC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b Early history section of company website
- ^ Alliance & Leicester lines up for flotation
- ^ "A&L shareholders approve takeover". BBC News. 16 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
- ^ "Alliance & Leicester PLC (UK): Scheme Of Arrangement". FTSE Group. 8 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- ^ "Santander blazes a brand trail through the high street with its flame logo". Jill Treanor, The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
- ^ Santander rebrands Abbey and Bradford & Bingley BBC News Online. 11 January 2010
- ^ Alliance & Leicester - Credit Cards - Important Information Alliance & Leicester plc
- ^ Alliance & Leicester Credit Card: Help MBNA
- ^ 200 jobs go as Alliance & Leicester shuts site Alan Jones. Press Association. 13 October 2009
See also
External links
- Alliance & Leicester corporate website
- Alliance & Leicester retail banking website
- Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank
- Alliance & Leicester International
- Alliance & Leicester Shareholder Portal
- Alliance & Leicester Review
- Advance Union - the UK Santander Group union
