Top 10 Banks in UK 2016
Banking in the United Kingdom was emerged in the 16th century. Most of the top Banks in the UK were formed two decades ago. The Industrial Revolution and increasing international trade has been the primary reason for the burgeoned establishment of banks in the United Kingdom. Most of the banks provides retail and corporate banking services, Insurance and other financial services. The top banks in UK include Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland & Lloyds along with banking companies like HBOS, Bank of Scotland, Natwest, Santander & Nationwide. Here is the list of the top 10 banks in UK 2016.
10. Nationwide
Nationwide Bank was established in 1925, as The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation which was managed by Murray D. Lincoln, the longest served leader in the organization.
Image: Company Website
In 1955, the company changed its brand name to Nationwide Insurance, and in 1997, Nationwide went public. In 2009, Nationwide Corporation become the wholly owned subsidiary of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Nationwide) purchase all the outstanding shares of Nationwide Financial Services.
Nationwide is a Fortune 100 company that offers a wide range of Insurance and Financial services across United Kingdom. Nationwide is the United Kingdom’s second largest mortgage and savings provider. Nationwide’s common equity Tier 1 ratio and leverage ratio are the key measures of their financial strength. The cost income ratio is the key measure of their efficiency. Nationwide has been encouraging people across the country towards saving money.
In 2013, Nationwide became the first financial services provider to launch digital wallet facility to its customers in UK, which aims to offer better online shopping experience. Nationwide won the Gallup’s Great Workplace Award to the best performing workforces in the world consecutively for last 4 years. In 2016, The Nationwide was awarded the Mortgage and savings provider of the year. It was names in the top 50 employers for women’s list. Nationwide wins best Loyalty rewards for existing customers.
In 2015, Net interest income was 2861 mn Euro which is 458 mn Euro higher than the Net interst income of 2014. The increase in income was contributed by lower retail funding costs and growth in retail assets. The weighted average total assets increased by 2% as growth in retail assets is more than the offset by treasury assets and non-core commercial assets during the financial year.
Total Revenue: 2895 Mn Euro
9. Santander
In 2010, Abbey, Allliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley collaborated and rebranded as Santander UK.
Image: Wikimedia
In 2011, with their commitment to be the “Bank of Choice” for UK companies, Santander Bank introduced a breakthrough programme which brings funding, expertise and business support to high-growth SMEs. The purpose of the Santander’s group is to help people and prosper businesses. Their aim is to be the best retail and commercial bank. Santander bank has 121 million loyal customers, 1229 agreements with universities and academic institutions in 21 countries. Santander Bank offers various financial services which includes Personal banking, Corporate banking, Private Banking and Institutional Banking. Santander Bank strives hard to help their customers day by day through simple and tailor-made solutions that increase the customer loyalty to the bank. It also focus on fair and equal treatment of customers based on trust & excellent service by various financial services through its branches and digital channels. Santander Bank has a target of 18.6 million loyal customers by 2018 with specific programmes in all the countries the bank operates. It perceives that developing value propositions by customer type and having a long-term strategy is the way to increase customer loyalty in the bank’s core markets.
In 2015, Santander maintained an attributable profit of 5966 mn Euro with a market capitalization of 65.792 mn Euro. Santander Bank have helped UK home owners with mortgage gross lending of 7.1 bn Euro, of which 900 n Euro was provided to first-time buyers. In 2015, the customer loans has increased to 5.5 bn Euro which was driven by refinancing and origination activities related to syndicated loans, project and acquisition finance and transactional services.
Total Revenue: 3575 Mn Euro
8. NatWest
NatWest Bank was formed in 1968 by merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank, which was then named as National Westminster Bank.
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In 2000, Royal Bank of Scotland group has completely acquired the Natwest for 21 bn Euro which was considered as the biggest acquisition in the British Banking Industry. In 1990s, financial service markets around the world has underwent massive change and started refocussing its activities, exiting from few markets. This refocus has made the bank to adopt the title NatWest. The NatWest group is consistently delivering on its plan to build a simple, strong and fair bank for both customers and shareholders. The operating segments are realigned to support the goal and reflect the progress. The activities of NatWest group are organized a Corporate Markets, Global Banking & Markets, UK Banking and Retail Markets. Global Banking is one of the leading banking partner to major corporations and financial institutions around the world, which provides wide range of debt financing, investment service and risk management to their customers. Retail arm of NatWest group provides a wide range of retail banking products and related financial services to individuals and corporates. UK banking focus provides banking, finance and risk management service to their UK customers.
In 2015, the total income of the Natwest Bank was 0.7 bn Euro less than the total income in 2014 which was due to the impact of reduced scale of Institutional and Corporate Banking business along with rundown of Capital Resolution. However, thebank observed improvement in deposit margins. The operating expenses in 2015 increased by 37% compared to the expenses in 2014. The group has exited substantially from the North American asset-backed products business.
Total Revenue: 6536 Mn Euro
7. Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland was founded in 1695 through an enactment by the Scottish parliament, which makes it first and the oldest bank of Scotland.
Image: geograph
In its journey of nearly three decades, Bank of Scotland acquired many companies which later consolidated to become the present Bank of Scotland. Bank of Scotland is a direct subsidiary of Llyods bank plc, which was set up mainly to help develop trade in Scotland with United Kingdom and other Low countries. The Bank of Scotland’s original shares were held by 172 Scotland’s political and merchant elite. The Bank of Scotland provides a wide range of financial products which includes saving and current accounts, loans, credit cards and mortgages in retail market, private banking, loans and capital products to commercial and business customers. The group and the bank established two types of hedge accounting relationships with their customers for interest rate risk namely fair value hedges and cash flow hedges. The bank exposed to fair value interest rate risk on its fixed rate customer loans.
In 2015, the Bank has identified an error in its accounting for an intra-group hedging transaction which the bank has been correcting retrospectively. The effect on this on the bank financials has been to decrease the total assets by 51 mn Euro. In 2015, The Bank of Scotland has earned a net interest income of 6,668 mn Euro and 465 mn Euro of net fee and commission income. It has incurred a loss of 22 mn Euro in Securities and other income and earned 93 mn Euro in net trading income.
Total Revenue: 7263 Mn Euro
6. HBOS
HBOS plc is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group plc and also a direct subsidiary of Lloyds Bank plc.
Image: company website
The HBOS group provide a wide range of banking and financial services through its offices and branches in United Kingdom and countries all over the world. The revenue of the group is maily earned through interest and fees on a wide range of financial products which includes saving and current accounts, loans, credit cards and mortgages in retail market, loans and capital products to commercial and business customers and private banking. The most important risk associated with the group, which may create a huge impact over the group’s long-term strategic objectives are credit risk, regulatory risk, operational and people risk. HBOS group has been taking actions to mitigate these risks associated with the group’s success. In order to build a culture in which employees are empowered and inspired, the group assess progress of the employees and incentivize them for their commitment and contribution towards achieving the strategic goals of the group.
During the financial year 2015, the group has recorded a profit before tax of 2740 million Euro compared to 3550 mn Euro in the last financial year. Total income has decreased by 3 per cent compared to total income in 2014. Net interest income in 2015 was 6706 mn Euro, an increase of 172 mn Euro compared to 2014. The total assets of the groups were 41,777 mn Euro at the end of financial year 2015 which was 11 per cent lower compared to the total assets at the end of 2014.
Total Revenue: 7419 Mn Euro
5. Lloyds
Llyods bank was founded in 1765 by John Taylor and Sampson Llyod in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Image: flickr-photos/126066997@N07/
For last 250 years, Llyods bank has been serving household, business and communities in Britain, and it offers range of financial products and services which included current accounts, loans, mortgages, savings and credit cards. In 1995, Llyods acquired Cheltenham and Gloucester building society which become the first ever association between a bank and a building society. In 2009, amidst of global recession, Llyods TSB acquired HBOS forming Llyods Banking Group. In 2013, Llyods Banking Group once again become two separate banks. The strength of the group is its rich and diverse heritage. To achieve its strategic vision to become Britain’s best bank for customers, the Llyods remain committed to serving customers and help to prosper Britain. Museum on the Mound was established in 2006 at Edinburgh, in the Scottish Headquarters of Lloyds Banking Group charts the history of banking in Scotland and display the theme of money in Art & design, trade, technology, crime, and security. Llyod Bank recognize the importance of engaging employees motivate them to deliver consistent and better results to achieve the strategic goals. With strong focus of women empowerment and improving the gender diversity in organization, Llyod bank employs 31% women in their senior management role.
The Retail banking segment of Llyod Bank provides current accounts, savings, loans and mortgages to small business customers in United Kingdom. The Retail banking function earns a 3514 mn Euro profit in the financial year 2015 which constitutes 44% of group profit. Commercial banking earns 2431 mn Euro profit which constitutes 31% of group profit. The Consumer Finance and Insurance contributes the remaining profit.
Total Revenue: 11482 Mn Euro
4. Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in 1727 in Edinburgh. Later, it went on to become one of the largest bank in Scotland.
Image: flickr-photos/ell-r-brown/
Royal Bank of Scotland is centred in United Kingdom and Ireland, focusing on providing their customers the best possible service, and it serves customers in Africa, Asia, Middle East and North America apart from European market. Royal Bank of Scotland believes its success of customers and communities makes them succeed in their business. In order to provide the service to the customers, Royal Bank of Scotland wants to become Stronger which is underpinned by resilient technology platform and capital strength, Simpler by reducing costs and improving efficiency and Fairer with an ambition to grow small business and become a bank with clear and upfront. Royal Bank of Scotland has opened four Entrepreneur Hubs across United Kingdom to enable entrepreneurs and small businesses to access free office space, mentoring and financial support. It has also planned to open five more hubs in 2016. The commercial bank has issued 12,500 statements of appetite letters to their customers which offers new borrowing facilities of up to 8 bn Euro.
Royal Bank of Scotland has been consistently striving to strengthen and reshape the balance sheet and building on a strong track record of delivery. It has reduced 32% Risk-weighted assets (RWAs) which includes the disposal of citizen’s Financial group and accelerated run-down of capital resolution. Commercial banking adjusted operating profit was declined by 6% at 1384 mn Euro which was primarily driven by marginal fall in income reflecting margin pressure and a Q4 loss of 34 mn Euro on the sale of non-strategic asset portfolios. Royal Bank of Scotland has planned a 3.5 bn Euro IT investment during the period of 2015 to 2017.
Total Revenue: 12151 Mn Euro
3. Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered Bank was established in 1969 by merging two separate banks, the Standard Bank of British South Africa and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.
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These banks had capitalized on the expanding trade among Europe, Africa and Asia. The Chartered Bank was founded by James Wilson in 1853, opened in Mumbai, Kolkata and Shanghai in 18588, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong, and the bank played a significant role in the development of trade with eastern nations. The standard Bank was founded in London by John Paterson, which was predominantly in financing the development of the diamond fields of Kimberley. Standard Chartered offers banking services which includes Retail banking, Corporate and Institutional banking across the world. Corporate and Institutional banking supports the British firms which operates significant level of trade abroad, opening the foreign markets to British firms and providing access to financial networks of Africa, Asia and Middle east nations. Standard Chartered UK, being a global financial centre and a key hub for the organization, provides a wide range of services to clients across the product groups of Transaction banking.
In 2015, the group has announced comprehensive changes to its strategies, leadership and structure with a vision to position the group for sustainable growth across geographies. The performance of the group in 2015 was poor in the aspects of key financial metrics and has seen a considerable material decline in share price along with decline in dividend. Standard chartered has received Excellent Service Award (EXSA) 2015 which recognize its commitment towards delivering quality service. Standard chartered Bank has received Global Finance World’s Best Internet Banks Award in 2013 and 2014. It has also received The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards in 2013.
Total Revenue: 13912 Mn Euro
2. HSBC
HSBC group operating model consists of 5 geographical regions, 4 global businesses and 11 global functions.
Image: flickr-photos/ell-r-brown/
The global businesses frame consistent business strategies across geographies and fuctions, and they also manage financial products and business propositions offered to all the customers around the world. The diversified business model of HSBC lays the foundation for their future progress and position the company well to deal with the challenging economic and financial conditions. In 2015, HSBC celebrated its 150th anniversary by recognizing staff and customers for their commitment and loyalty. HSBC also recognized its responsibilities to serve the community and to make the anniversary special, HSBC committed $150 mn of funding to the community projects across the geographies over three years. HSBC has contributed $25 mn to Cancer Research UK to support the scientists towards the development and construction of Francis Crick Institute. HSBC board had decided to remain headquartered at London, UK considering all the factors such as strategic focus on Asia and of careful analysis and assessment of economic, geopolitical, financial and regulatory factors across all the geographies it operates.
HSBC is standing in a better place with balanced portfolio which earn high return. The Universal banking model is generating higher income in collaboration between businesses along with operating expenses and capital ratio heading in the right path. In 2015, HSBC reported profit before tax as $18.9 bn up by 1% from 2014. The favourable movement in the growth includes lower fines, settlements, UK customer redress and a gain on the partial disposal of Industrial bank. In order to provide better return to the shareholders, HSBC has taken steps to reduce expenses and to reduce risk-weighted assets (RWA). Much of this saving have come from Global banking and markets along with commercial banking.
Total Revenue: 14918 Mn Euro
1. Barclays
Barclays is one of the biggest transatlantic corporate, consumer and investment bank.
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Barclays has many portfolio in the banking market which produce significant returns to the company, and personal & Corporate banking and Barclaycard together generates significant share of the profit the organization yields. The company’s strategic actions bring the complete restructuring and emerge out as a simple and profitable company. The strategy of Barclay is to strength out as a transatlantic consumer, corporate & investment bank which will focus on two biggest financial centers of the world, London & New York. This strategy clearly defines the two divisions of the organization, Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International. Barclays UK include UK retail bank, customer credit card business and other traditional banking business. These businesses play a role of committed service provider to the people and business in UK. The business has 22 million retail customers and a million business banking credits. It is second largest wealth manager in UK and biggest card issuer in England. Barclays has almost 11 million card holding customers in UK.
The total assets of the company has decreased 238 bn Euro to 1,120 bn Euro. The cash and balances has increased to 51 bn Euro. During this financial year, the reverse repurchase agreements has been designated at fair value to align better to the way business manages functions. This has resulted in increase of 44 bn Euro in the account. The profit after tax of the group reduced 2% in the financial year 2015 to 5403 Mn Euro and the total operating expenses decreased by 6% to 16998 Mn Euro as a result of huge savings from strategic cost programmes implemented during the period.
Total Revenue: 24528 Mn Euro
Methodology:
In order to find the top 10 Banks in the United Kingdom, top 16 banks were chosen and its total revenue for each bank was calculated. The revenue will be income by interest and other such sources. The revenue was converted into million Euro to facilitate comparison.
The banks are sorted as per these total revenue in the financial year 2015 and found the Top 10 Banks in the United Kingdom.
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