HBOS Totally Explained

Everything about Hbos Plc totally explained

HBOS plc (Halifax Bank of Scotland) is a banking and insurance group in the United Kingdom, the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operates the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands; HBOS Australia, owner of BankWest; and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited, the group's insurance division. Officially HBOS is an initialism not overtly standing for anything, although it's widely recognised to mean Halifax Bank of Scotland. The corporate headquarters of the group are in Edinburgh, Scotland; the old office of the Bank of Scotland. Operational headquarters are based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England; the old head office of Halifax.
HBOS was formed by the merger of the Halifax plc and the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland, and the formation of HBOS was heralded as creating a fifth force in British banking as it created a company of comparable size and stature to the established Big Four UK retail banks. Since its creation it has grown to become the fourth biggest banking group in the UK by market capitalisation. It is also the UK’s largest mortgage lender. HBOS is a public limited company listed on the London Stock Exchange . A reorganisation of the group initiated by the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 saw the transfer of the Halifax plc to the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland, which was now a registered public limited company, Bank of Scotland plc.

History

Formation

The Bank of Scotland is the UK's oldest commercial bank,by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1695. Halifax was founded in 1853 as the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society, which demutualised in 1997 to become a plc.
The merger of the Bank of Scotland and Halifax occurred during a wave of consolidation in the UK banking market which began in the late 1990s. The Bank of Scotland played a key role in the process, firstly by launching a hostile takeover bid for NatWest, although the bid failed to a rival offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland. It later investigated a merger with Abbey National, when Halifax approached with an offer to merge.
The merger created the fifth largest bank in the UK by market capitalisation, although since 2001 the bank has overtaken Lloyds TSB to become fourth largest.

HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006

In 2006, HBOS secured the passing of the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006, a private Act of Parliament that would allow the group to operate in a more simplified structure. The Act allowed HBOS to make the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland a public limited company, Bank of Scotland plc, which became the principal banking subsidiary of HBOS. Halifax plc transferred to Bank of Scotland plc, although the brand name has been retained.
The provisions in the Act were implemented on the 17th September 2007.

Structure

HBOS has 3 main subsidiaries:

Bank of Scotland plc
HBOS Australia
HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited

Bank of Scotland plc

Bank of Scotland plc is the banking division of the HBOS group, and operates the following brands:

United Kingdom

Bank of Scotland

Bank of Scotland Private Banking

Bank of Scotland Treasury Services

Birmingham Midshires

Halifax

Halifax Financial Services (Holdings) Ltd

Halifax Investment Fund Managers Ltd

Halifax Share Dealing Limited

Halifax Unit Trust Management Ltd

Intelligent Finance

Sainsbury's Bank (50%)

The Mortgage Business (TMB)

Blair, Oliver & Scott (Debt recovery)

International

Banco Halifax Hispania

Bank of Scotland Corporate

Bank of Scotland International

Bank of Scotland Investment Services

Bank of Scotland (Ireland)

Bank of Scotland (Netherlands)

HBOS Australia

HBOS Australia was formed in 2004 to consolidate the group’s holdings in Australia. It consists of the following subsidiaries:

Bank of Western Australia Limited

Capital Finance Australia Limited

St Andrew's Australia Pty Ltd

BOS International (Australia) Ltd

HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited

HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited manages the group’s insurance and investment brands in the UK and Europe. It consists of the following:

esure

First Alternative

St James's Place Capital (60%)

Halifax General Insurance Services Ltd

Halifax Insurance Ireland Ltd

Clerical Medical

Sainsbury's

Sheilas' WheelsFurther Information

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