Following on from my last blog about Is ICICI an Indian bank?, I was interested to read the forum discussion. There Fudge 1977 was one of many to voice the following sentiment:
“With the push to ‘buy British’, maybe you could just highlight British owned banks when referencing them.
I’m buying british where I can do which isn’t xenophobic or whatever, it just keeps people in jobs which is good for our economy. Yes, it can cost me more sometimes but I guess it’s just a moral dilemma….”
Putting aside whether you’re in favour of this (it could equally be argued there are countries in the world who need our support more than we do), what interests me is the concept of a British Bank.
Certainly it’s nowhere near as easy to define as you’d think; in a world of international global capital what counts?
Some examples of foreign British Banks…
All the following UK registered banks could be defined as overseas.
- Abbey: Owned by Spanish based Bank Santander.
- Alliance & Leicester: Owned by Spanish based Bank Santander.
- Bradford & Bingley: Owned by Spanish based Bank Santander.
- Clydesdale Bank: Owned by the National Australian Banking Corporation.
- Egg: Owned by US banking giant Citibank.
- HSBC: Floated in the UK but ultimately the “Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation” so Chinese now.
- Post Office Savings: Owned by the Bank of Ireland, not covered by the UK financial services compensation scheme (see Safe Savings).
- Yorkshire Bank: Owned by the National Australian Banking Corporation.