Big Four (banks)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Big Four is the name given to the four biggest banks in a certain area:

• The Big Four commercial banks of the United Kingdom, HSBC Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and recently joined by Halifax Bank of Scotland to make the Big Five.
  • In England & Wales as a whole. For many decades these were: Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB); NatWest, (now a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland); Barclays Bank; and Midland Bank (now HSBC Bank). HBOS, which was formed by a merger between the Bank of Scotland and the former building society Halifax, is larger than Lloyds TSB by both assets and market capitalization, so the term is obsolete, but it is still sometimes used by the media.
  • In Northern Ireland; these are: Ulster Bank (owned by Royal Bank of Scotland), Bank of Ireland, Northern Bank (owned by Danske Bank) and First Trust Bank (part of AIB UK)
  • In Scotland; these are traditionally: Bank of Scotland (now merged with Halifax to form HBOS and still operating as Bank of Scotland), Royal Bank of Scotland (now one of Europe's biggest banks), Clydesdale Bank (now owned by National Australia Bank) and the TSB, which now forms part of Lloyds TSB Scotland.
• In the Republic of Ireland; these are: AIB, Bank of Ireland, National Irish Bank (owned by Danske Bank) and Ulster Bank (owned by Royal Bank of Scotland)
• In Australia; these are: the National Australia Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ
• In Sweden; these are: Swedbank, merger between the Sparbanken and Föreningsbanken in the late 1990's; Nordea, result of a pan-Nordic merger, SEB, Svenska Handelsbanken
• In China
  • In the People's Republic of China; these are: the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China.
  • Previously (before 1949), in the Republic of China; these were: Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Central Bank of China and Farmers Bank of China.
• In South Africa; these are: the First National Bank , ABSA , Standard Bank, and Nedbank
• In Vietnam; these are: Agribank (Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) - the biggest, BIDV (Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam) - the second biggest, Vietcombank (Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam) - the third biggest, and Incombank (Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam) the fourth biggest in the country^[1].
• In Canada; these are: TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, and CIBC.

[edit] References

1. ^ LAODONG.COM.VN | Ngân hàng BIDV được Finance Asia đưa vào top 100 ngân hàng của Châu Á - Ngan hang BIDV duoc Finance Asia dua vao top 100 ngan hang cua Chau A

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