Talk:List of banks in the United Kingdom/Archives/2013

Cooperative Bank

I think that the inclusion of the Cooperative as a major independent British bank is somewhat flawed. By two rather important measures, Close Brothers Group (equity of £1.1bn, operating profit of £72m) is bigger than the Cooperative Bank (equity of £905m, profit of £28m). Since there's almost an order of magnitude between the Cooperative and Standard Chartered (by far the smallest of the big banks) in the other major measure (assets), I suggest that the Cooperative be separated and added to a different table of small, independent banks. Including the Cooperative as a 'big bank' is basically a marketing ploy that bears no resemblance to reality. Bastin 22:42, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The Co-operative Bank is quite a different beast from the likes of Standard Chartered. The latter may have its HQ in the UK, but nearly all of its operations are overseas. The average 'person in the street' is unlikely to have heard of it - and the same goes for Close Brothers, a merchant bank. By other non-financial measures of size, the Co-operative will score fairly well (number of customers, number of branches, etc). Although not stated implicitly, the focus of this article seems to be on on retail banks. So rather than remove the Co-op, I'd rather remove the long list of overseas banks that have a UK banking licence and re-focus the article on UK retail banks. DrFrench (talk) 23:19, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course, the banks all have their own various specialisms, but I'm not sure that it's the purpose of that list to differentiate between retail, corporate, and investment banks, nor to differentiate between banks that have their main operations in the UK and those overseas (HSBC's main operations are in Asia, although not to the same extent as STAN). Certainly, if those are the criteria, they're not being enforced by the current situation.

I object to this article having the unstated focus on retail banking, both that it ought not to and that it doesn't seem to presently do so. Do market cap or total assets reflect retail strength? Not really (indeed, for almost all institutions, retail banking is a minority pursuit by both metrics). As shown in the report linked above, the Co-op makes no money on retail banking, which it cross-subsidises with its corporate and wholesale/investment operations. That's for an institution whose supposed claim to inclusion is that it's an important retail bank, whilst, as already stated, STAN doesn't maintain any retail presence in the UK at all. On public perception, I'm not sure that most people know that the Co-op has a bank, either: probably not significantly more than would have heard of Rothschild (pre-tax profit £50m, equity £350m, assets £4bn).

As far as I'm concerned, including the Co-op, which is a tiny bank compared to the four/five big ones, is absurd. The questions as to what to do with Standard Chartered (UK, but small here) and Banco Santander (Spanish, but huge here) remain. But to continue to include the Co-op and not Close Brothers under an unstated assumption that corporate and wholesale banking don't matter is hypocritical, given that the Co-op makes all of its money off those two areas (and most assets under management fall into them). Hence my suggestion that they all be moved to a separate table away from the big boys.

Yes, the long list of banks licensed to operate in the UK should probably go. There is utility to it, so perhaps splitting it to a separate article would be best, provided it can be maintained. Bastin 14:57, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Is there utility? Given "Virtually all of the world's leading banks have investment and commercial banking offices in the City of London", won't it just be a list of nearly all banks? A link to the FSA's register might be more useful. Bazj (talk) 16:45, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually on reflection, I agree. Rather than propose a split, I propose simply deleting that list from the article. now I'm going to to be WP:BOLD and do it! DrFrench (talk) 16:58, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Can I add to this debate by pointing out that Co-operative Bank isn't an independent company at all. It is the banking subsidiary of the Co-operative Group, which is primarily a supermarket chain. In fact, it's virtually no different in ownership to Sainsbury's Bank or Tesco Personal Finance.

Rather than discussing whether it's big enough to be listed, shouldn't it simply be moved down to the lower section with a similar description to Sainsbury's Bank? WPArgentarius (talk) 00:05, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

By that metric, yes. Then again, I don't think that the supermarket banks should be treated as though they're not independent. They're separate banks, not subsumed into a larger financial institutions, and therefore aren't just 'brands' (in the way that Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds are), but the sole financial subsidiary and 'independent' of all other financial institutions. However, again, they fit into 'niche' banks. They aren't full-spectrum, full-service banks, and they're not within an order of magnitude of the big four by any metric. As such, they belong in the same class, separate from the largest banks. Bastin 02:11, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

tadi nu c —Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.178.171.171 (talk) 16:06, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

The Co-operative Bank is a clearing bank and should be treated as such. The claim that it is "virtually no different in ownership to Sainsbury's Bank or Tesco Personal Finance" is ludicrous and based on a false analogy. 2.25.221.130 (talk) 21:39, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Measures of Banks current Market Capitalisation

Just a quick note that the table showing market capitalisation is wrong. For a start HSBC is in dollars where as the rest are in GBP. Also, the value of the stock on only one exchange (the LSE) has been quoted where as in reality, most banks stock is traded in a variety of markets/exchanges

93.97.100.120 (talk) 10:06, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Natwest

Why isn't Natwest mentioned anywhere in the article? Surely that's one of the biggest banks? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.99.81.17 (talk) 01:24, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Good question, I believe it is part of RBS Group so not a bank in its own right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robidy (talk • contribs) 08:47, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Restored. Although part of RBS Group, it operates under its own banking licence. 2.25.221.130 (talk) 21:25, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Recent edits

Can anyone check the 10 september edit?! Seems odd.Super48paul (talk) 13:40, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Looks like Solihull college, perhaps a class where a student was trying to put part of a lecture into practise. Robidy (talk) 14:24, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

There are also some odd edits from a Chinese edit on the 4th September trying to remove Egg/Barclays... Robidy (talk) 14:24, 10 September 2013 (UTC)