Santander - Rebranding.

May 29, 2009 16 Replies

Santander are to rebrand all B&B, Abbey and A&L as Santander.



How does this affect the FSCS maximum compensation of £50,000? Currently each of the three have their own FSCS £50,000 limit.


I may be wrong, but I thought they already 'shared' a 50000 limit. If not, they certainly will now. Should this ever come to pass, of course, you won't need your money back as the finance system will have collapsed and you'll be bartering and growing your food.

AS

"AS" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

They do. It's £50k per parent institution, not per brand - so if you had £50k in each of Lloyds TSB, Halifax & Bank of Scotland, you'd only be protected to £50k, not £150k.

Eventually I found some information. Apparantly all three, as banks not Building Societies, do not share a limit.

See

formatting link
Abbey and B&B share a limit and A&L has its own.

Nothing on the information in Q&A about the rebranding on Abbey, A&L and B&Bs' websites mention the compensation limit.

I have asked the question on B&B's website.

That statement appears to be incorrect. See

formatting link
Bank of Scotland plc group and Lloyds TSB have separate FRNs (Firm Reference Numbers). Hence each has a £50k limit. So the protection in your example would be£100k. IIUC.

It's something that is dynamic and needs watching, and was actually changing before the current crisis, as linked institutions were increasingly re-registering as individual deposit takers which would give only a single limit of cover.

Another source of the info is

formatting link
There is also the fact that the FSCS actually has no money but is financed by a levy on surviving banks, so there is the issue of who pays the money if there is a collapse of major institutions and all the other big banks are skint. (there is perhaps a good reason why there was a government bailout rather than the deficiences of the FSCS scheme being exposed in the recent crises -there might have been panic runs on other banks once it was realised what the guarantee was 'worth') There is now mention of some back-up for the funding - see

formatting link
In general

formatting link
Has a useful overview.

Toom

Abbey shares its £50,000 limit with Bradford & Bingley. Alliance & Leicester currently has a separate limit, but this will no longer be the case after they merge.

Lloyds TSB, Lloyds TSB Scotland and Bank of Scotland are three separate institutions, and you get a separate £50k limit with each.

According to Abbey eBanking:

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme Abbey is part of the Santander Group along with Alliance and Leicester and Cater Allen we operate under separate banking licenses.

What this means for you This means that any savings that you hold separately with Abbey, Alliance and Leicester and Cater Allen will be covered up to the value of

50,000 for each separate institution. More information about the compensation scheme is available here

And after they are all Santander?

They are all now one and the same, therefore the limit applies across the board of Santander banks.

However, the bigger questions is, what happens in the future. In my town, I have 2 abbeys, 1 B&B and 1 A&L. I cannot see that once the re- branding is complete, that there will be 4 santander banks in one town. Instead, they will slowly slowly (no one notices, no one objects) close them down, so you end up with 3 times the number of people in one branch, therefore less service and longer queues. when that happens, I for one will walk.

Wrong. They are all still independently registered (or whatever the term is) and are protected separately

tim

The replies have been yes and no.

Why doesn't someone ask Santander and post the correct answer, instead of all the bitching.

Wrong. It is amazing that posters can't be bothered to read the whole thread. Just jump in and post erroneous information, no reference for their opinion (not facts).

I have already given the reference to

formatting link
where the limits by "brand" can be seen.

I, the OP, have asked and said so. See message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com

I am waiting for an answer.

Wrong. Alliance & Leicester is independently registered and protected separately.

Abbey and Bradford & Bingley are not, so you have one limit shared between both of them.

formatting link
one would have thought this page would contain a section on this very important aspect.....but NO.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required