Halifax (bank)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Halifax plc

Type of Company	Public
Founded	1853
Headquarters	Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Products	Financial Services
Parent	HBOS plc
Website	www.halifax.co.uk

Halifax plc is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, part of the HBOS Group. Prior to 1997, it was the UK's largest building society, known as the Halifax Building Society. The Halifax is the UK's largest provider of residential mortgages and saving accounts. It is named after the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire where it retains its headquarters.

1 History
2 TV adverts
3 Corporate structure
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

The Halifax was formed in 1853 as the The Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society. The idea was thought up in a meeting room situated above The Old Cock pub close to the original Building Society building. Like all early building societies, the purpose of the Society was for the mutual benefit of local working people. Investors with surplus cash would invest in the society to receive interest, and borrowers could access loans to fund the purchase of a house.

Unlike many UK building societies which grew large by acquisitions and mergers, the Society choose an organic form of growth, and proceeded to open branches throughout the UK. By 1913, it was the largest building society in the UK. The first office in London opened in 1924; and the first offices in Scotland in 1928.

[edit] Halifax Building Society

The headquarters of Halifax plc- Trinity Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire

In 1928, it merged with Halifax Equitable Building Society, then the second largest building society and was renamed Halifax Building Society. The Society was now five times larger than its nearest rival, with assets of £47 million.

A new Head Office was built at Trinity Road, Halifax in 1973. The distinguished diamond shaped building was used on marketing material during the 1980s and 90s. Underneath the building is a specially constructed deedstore which is used to store property deeds for an annual charge of £10. It is computerised and filled with gas to prevent fire. Its importance has diminished in recent years because property data is now kept on a central database kept by Her Majesty's Land Registry.

[edit] Diversification

The Society continued to grow in size throughout the 20th century, remaining the UK's largest building society. The deregulation of the financial services industry in the 1980s, saw the passing of the Building Societies Act 1986 which allowed societies greater financial freedoms, and diversification into other markets. Accordingly the Halifax acquired an estate agents to complement its mortgage business. It also expanded by offering current accounts and credit cards, traditionally services offered by commercial banks.

[edit] Demutalisation

The 1986 Act also allowed building societies to demutualise, and became public limited companies instead of mutually owned organisations, owned by the customers who borrowed and saved with the society. Although the Abbey National demutalised in 1989, the process was not repeated until the late 1990s, when most of the large societies announced demutalisation plans. In 1995, the Halifax announced it was to merge with the Leeds Permanent Building Society and convert to a plc. The Halifax floated on the London Stock Exchange on June 2, 1997. Over 7.5 million customers of the Society became shareholders of the new bank, the largest extension of shareholders in UK history.

[edit] Halifax plc

As Halifax plc, the new bank was the fifth largest in the UK in terms of market capitalisation. Further expansion took place with the 1996 acquisition of Clerical Medical Fund Managers, a UK life insurance company. In 1999, the Halifax acquired the Birmingham Midshires Building Society.

In 2000, Halifax established Intelligent Finance, a telephone and internet based bank.

[edit] HBOS

In 2001, a wave of consolidation in the UK banking market led Halifax to agree a £10.8 billion merger with the Bank of Scotland. The new group was named Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) with headquarters in Edinburgh, but retaining both Halifax and the Bank of Scotland as brand names. However in Scotland, Halifax branches were amalgamated with the Bank of Scotland, and the Halifax brand is now only used for branding mortgages and savings products. Halifax branches in the rest of the UK use the Bank of Scotland brand for business banking. In 2006, the opposite occurred when the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), HBOS's main retail bank in the Republic of Ireland, announced that it would be rebranding its retail business as Halifax, citing the Irish public's exposure to Halifax advertising on ITV as among the reasons [1]. The Bank of Scotland name will be retaining for business banking.

In 2006, the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 was passed. The aim of the Act was to simplify the corporate structure of HBOS. When the Act is fully implemented the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc will transfer to a new company, Bank of Scotland plc. The Halifax brand name will be retained, but it will no longer exist as a corporate entity.

[edit] TV adverts

Halifax pioneered an innovative approach to bank adverts in 2000, when it allowed its staff to star in adverts, singing popular songs with the words changed to reflect financial services products. Halifax worker, Howard Brown is the regular star of the adverts. Following the merger with the Bank of Scotland, this practice has continued, with the Bank of Scotland also allowing its staff to take part.