List of banks in the United Kingdom
Independent British retail banks
The table shows the main independent British retail banks, in order of market capitalisation. The list is quite short as 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 list 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. Lloyds TSB plc, on 18 September 2008, a confirmed agreement to take over HBOS plc.[1][2][3]
| Bank | Headquarters | Market value (£bn) As of 31 May 2019[4] |
Total assets (£bn) As of 31 Dec 2018[5] |
|---|---|---|---|
| HSBC Holdings | London, England | 131 | 1,998 |
| Lloyds Banking Group†[lower-alpha 1] | London, England | 40 | 794 |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group††[lower-alpha 2] | Edinburgh, Scotland | 26.2 | 691 |
| Barclays | London, England | 25 | 873 |
| Standard Chartered | London, England | 22.4 | 540[7] |
- Includes Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland (including Halifax, Birmingham Midshires and Intelligent Finance).
- Includes NatWest, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank. The UK government owns a controlling stake of 73% of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS)'s ordinary shares, but the bank remains nominally independent of government[6]
The retail and commercial banking markets are dominated by HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Spanish-owned Santander UK (most of these companies operate more than one banking brand in the UK). The fifth major UK-based bank, Standard Chartered, operates primarily in Asia and Africa.
There are a number of banking businesses owned by retail groups, such as:
- Post Office Money, a trading name used by Post Office Ltd for its branded financial products, most of which are provided by Bank of Ireland
- Sainsbury's Bank, owned by British supermarket company Sainsbury's.
- Tesco Bank, owned by British supermarket company Tesco.
Banks incorporated in the UK
A full list of businesses considered banks by the Prudential Regulation Authority are listed in the table below, this 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.
The other main class of consumer financial service organisation in the United Kingdom is the building society, but the building society sector is much smaller than it used to be as many major building societies demutualised in the 1980s and 1990s and there has also been ongoing consolidation via mergers between societies. Halifax (now part of Lloyds Banking Group) and Abbey (now part of Santander) were the two largest building societies. The remaining building societies which demutualised have all subsequently lost their independence, either through nationalisation or acquisition by other banks. See Building society for a list of the remaining building societies. Out of the remaining building societies, only Nationwide would be large enough to appear in the above table if it were a bank.
UK retail banking brands owned by foreign banks
- Allied Irish Bank (GB) and First Trust Bank, owned by AIB Group of the Republic of Ireland
- Al Rayan Bank, owned by Masraf Al Rayan of Qatar
- Axis Bank UK, owned by Axis Bank of India
- Bank of Ceylon (UK), owned by Bank of Ceylon of Sri Lanka
- Bank of Baroda (UK), owned by Bank of Baroda of India
- Bank of China (UK), owned by Bank of China
- Bank of India (UK), owned by Bank of India
- Bank Sepah International plc, owned by Bank Sepah of Iran
- FCMB Bank (UK) Limited, owned by First City Monument Bank of Nigeria
- Zenith Bank (UK), owned by Zenith Bank of Nigeria
- Bank of Ireland UK, owned by Bank of Ireland of the Republic of Ireland; one of the leading banks in Northern Ireland, and present in Great Britain to a lesser extent
- Citibank (UK), owned by Citigroup of the United States
- ICBC (London) plc, by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
- ICICI Bank (UK), owned by ICICI Bank of India
- Danske Bank (formerly Northern Bank), owned by Danske Bank of Denmark
- Punjab National Bank (International), owned by Punjab National Bank of India
- Santander UK (formerly Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley), owned by Santander Group of Spain
- SEB (UK), owned by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Sweden
- Silicon Valley Bank UK, owned by Silicon Valley Bank of the United States
- State Bank of India (UK), owned by State Bank of India
- Svenska Handelsbanken, UK Branch
- The Bank of East Asia, UK Branch
- TSB Bank, part of Sabadell Group, headquartered in Spain
- Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd, owned by Union Bank of India of India
- United Bank UK, owned by United Bank Limited of Pakistan
See also
- 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package
- 2009 United Kingdom bank rescue package
- Banking in the United Kingdom
- Building society
- List of building societies in the United Kingdom
References
- "Lloyds TSB confirms deal to take over HBOS". 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- "Recommended acquisition of HBOS plc by Lloyds TSB Group plc" (PDF). Lloyds TSB. 2008-09-17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- BBC News: HBOS confirms Lloyds merger talks; Guardian: Banking crisis: Lloyds TSB in talks to buy HBOS
- "Statista - Leading banks in Europe as of May 2019, by market capitalization". Statista. 8 December 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
- "Statista - Leading banks in Europe 2018, by total assets". Statista. Statista. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
- "RBS shares plunge on record loss". BBC News. 19 January 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
- "Standard Chartered Annual Report 2018" (PDF). 8 December 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
- "Banks & building societies lists - Bank of England". www.bankofengland.co.uk.