From 1 July, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) will attempt to reduce its queues by making customers with cash cards withdrawing less than £300 to use the branch cash machine. The bank, which is to be renamed Santander later this year, said the change will bring the bank brand in line with other banks in the [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander is to begin its integration of UK High Street banks - Abbey and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). Santander, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion, back in 2004. In July 2008, it [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) replaced HSBC as the UK’s most consistently competitive mortgage lender during the final quarter of 2009. According to research by mortgage search software firm, Evaluate Technologies, A&L surged ahead despite having failed to register any of its home loans in best buy tables during the previous quarter. The lender, which is [...]
Mortgage borrowers with Santander will soon be able to take advantage of a bank current account that attaches no fees to overdrafts, whether authorised or unauthorised. The Spanish banking giant is launching a “Zero” current account on 11th January 2010 to coincide with its rebranding of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester to [...]
Abbey and Alliance & Leicester are offering preferential mortgage rates to some existing customers. The lenders, both part of the Santander group, are enticing current account holders who have been with the banks for six months or more with new deals available in branch or on the telephone. The range includes fee-free tracker and fixed-rate [...]
Alliance & Leicester customers are being offered free software to protect them from internet fraudsters. The Santander-owned bank said the Rapport software is designed to protect customers from phishing attacks and malware. Rapport makes sure sensitive information entered into websites, such as passwords and User IDs, is protected from hackers seeking to gain valuable personal [...]
Santander plans to discontinue the 6% current account at its UK banks. The 6% + 6% offer, which pays new Abbey and Alliance & Leicester customers 6% interest on their current account and on monthly savings, will close later this week. Savers taking maximum advantage of the offer could earn nearly £250 interest in the [...]
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have announced the launch of a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.2%. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £10,000 and £2 million. Any withdrawals incur a penalty of 120 days interest. The bonds can be opened by visiting any branch of [...]
Santander’s UK banks are offering interest rates of up to 6% on monthly savings accounts and current accounts. Abbey’s Super Fixed Rate Monthly Saver and Alliance & Leicester’s (A&L) Premier Regular Saver are both paying the headline rate to savers who invest a fixed amount between £20 and £250 per month. However, there’s a catch. [...]
Abbey and Alliance & Leicester (A&L) are together claiming to be the UK’s second-biggest mortgage lenders, behind HBOS. Both banks belong to Spanish group, Santander, which reported its half-year results this week. The figures reveal that Abbey and A&L were responsible for 16.3% of the UK’s gross mortgage lending during the six months to the [...]
The commercial banking wings of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester were yesterday renamed under the Santander brand. Santander-owned Abbey UK Corporate Banking and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank were rebranded Santander Corporate Banking. A total of 20 regional corporate banking centres will undergo the name change this year, including centres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, [...]
Alliance & Leicester Business Bank (A&L) is offering 6% AER to small businesses opening a Free Business Current Account at the bank. Aimed at SMEs with a turnover of up to £1 million, the account offers the headline rate for 12 months after account opening on balances up to £2,500. Available immediately for a limited [...]
In a move which will cost £12 million, Santander is to re-name its UK High Street banks: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). According to Santander, the move is aimed at saving £180 million from integrating the three banks. The move would also allow the UK business to use the “expertise [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has launched a new mortgage aimed at first-time buyers with a 15% deposit. The three-year fix, which is fee free, comes with a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 85%, an interest rate of 5.99%, a maximum loan size of £250,000 and a free valuation. Latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has launched a new nine-month fixed-rate bond aimed at small and medium sized businesses. The Business Bond pays interest at 2.81% AER (2.80% gross), and matures on 1 March 2010. SMEs with savings between £50,000 and £2 million can open the bond online, on the telephone, or in branch. The bond [...]
Santander’s UK banks have launched a new two year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.01% gross p.a./AER. Minimum deposit is £30,000, and maximum deposit is £2 million. The bond is available in store from branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings and investments at Santander UK, said [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) yesterday re-launched its Premier Regular Saver account. The account pays interest at 7% pa gross/AER, and is designed to encourage people to put aside a fixed amount each month. “The Premier Regular Saver is a great way for people to kick-start a savings habit,” said Gillian Almond, A&L’s current accounts manager. [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) is offering £100 to new customers opening a current account. The Santander-owned bank said the offer will be available for four weeks from Thursday 30 April to new customers opening a Premier Current Account or a Premier 50 Current Account. “This is only available for a few weeks, so grab it [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has launched a two-year tracker at 2.45% above base rate (currently 2.95%). The mortgage is available to both homebuyers and remortgagers who can stump up a deposit of at least 25%. It comes with a fee of £499 and the maximum loan size is £250,000. According to the lender’s director of [...]
HSBC is the best high street bank for customer service, according to mystery shopper research by Prophet. The innovation strategy consultants found that of the ten banks surveyed, only HSBC and Citi offer a customer experience ‘above expectations’. Barclays came in third place behind HSBC and Citi, providing a customer experience that met expectations. Lloyds [...]
A year has passed since the government replaced Child Trust Funds with Junior ISAs (JISAs) but more than half of parents are unaware that they exist, according to research by friendly society Family Investments Children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 were eligible to open a Child Trust Fund and to receive [...]
PPI costs increase for Lloyds and Barclays
Lloyds Banking Group has set aside a further £1 billion to cover compensation costs for customers who were mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). Yesterday, Barclays revealed £700m of PPI costs in the 2012 third quarter increasing its total provision to £2bn. Lloyds Banking Group, which has made the largest PPI provision out of all the [...]
Bonfire Night worst day for burglaries warns Aviva
Insurance group Aviva is warning households to be vigilant over security at this time of the year, as burglaries tend to increase signficantly between Halloween and Bonfire Night. On Bonfire Night the number of burglaries increases by around 25 per cent compared with an average day, according to the company’s research. Aviva also reported a [...]
Consumer confidence hits six-month low
Although the UK has officially emerged from recession, consumer confidence fell to -30 in October from -28 in September, according to market researcher company GfK NOP. This is the lowest level of consumer confidence since April when the UK was in an economic slump. Analysts had expected the index to remain stable at -28. Respondents [...]
100,000 mortgage holders escape negative equity trap
New figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reveal that the number of borrowers in negative equity fell 13 per cent to 719,000 between the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The number of borrowers paying a mortgage greater than the value of their property fell despite a further small [...]
Banking commission appoints counsel to cross-examine witnesses
The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has appointed counsel to cross-examine witnesses during its inquiry into the collapse of Halifax Bank of Scotland. Barrister David Quest has been appointed to question witnesses in a public evidence session, as part of a sub-committee panel inquiry into the bank. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commission said: “This [...]
Mortgage approvals increased in September
An increase in the number of mortgage approvals in September suggests that the ‘Funding for Lending’ scheme, launched by the Treasury and the Bank of England, may be starting to give the property market a boost. According to Bank of England figures, the number of loans approved for house purchase increased by 2,103 to 50,024 [...]
Five million paid less than living wage
Five million people in the UK are paid less than the ‘living wage’ of £7.20, or £8.30 in London, according to a new report by KPMG. In Northern Ireland, 24 per cent of workers receive less than they require in order to pay for essentials and the situation is little better in Wales where 23 [...]
Commission calls for radical change in housing market
A new study by the Future Homes Commission suggests that the way homes are built in the UK is dysfunctional and needs a radical overhaul. The organisation, which was established by the Royal Institute of British Architects, believes that 300,000 extra homes could be built every year without any input from Government funding. Instead, the [...]
The UK economy emerged from recession yesterday and now leads the way in Europe according to research group Capital Economics. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by one per cent in the third quarter from July to September, the biggest rise for five years, the latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. [...]
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