Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdo ...

, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business

demutualised Demutualization is the process by which a customer-owned mutual organization (''mutual'') or co-operative changes legal form to a joint stock company. It is sometimes called stocking or privatization. As part of the demutualization process, member ...

in the middle of 1997, when it was floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. It was listed in the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...

, and had been listed in the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

from April 1997 until June 2008. After running into difficulty during the

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

, the bank was acquired by the

Santander Group Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres ...

in October 2008, and transferred its business into

Santander UK Santander UK plc (, ) is a British bank, wholly owned by the Spanish Santander Group. Santander UK plc manages its affairs autonomously, with its own local management team, responsible solely for its performance. Santander UK is one of the le ...

plc in May 2010. It was fully integrated and rebranded as Santander by the end of 2011. The bank's international subsidiary based in

Douglas, Isle of Man Douglas ( gv, Doolish, ) is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Man, with a population of 26,677 (2021). It is located at the mouth of the River Douglas, and on a sweeping bay of . The River Douglas forms part of the town's harbour ...

Alliance & Leicester International Alliance & Leicester International Limited (ALIL) was the international banking subsidiary of Alliance & Leicester, which was subsequently bought by the Santander Group in October 2008. The bank offered a range of international savings account ...

, continued to use the name Alliance & Leicester, until it was fully merged into Santander UK in May 2013.

History

Early history

The Alliance & Leicester Building Society was formed by the merger of the Alliance Building Society (originally based in and called the Brighton & Sussex Equitable Building Society) and the Leicester Building Society on 1 October 1985. In July 1990 the society acquired

Girobank National Girobank was a British public sector financial institution run by the General Post Office that opened for business in October 1968. It started life as ''National Giro'' then ''National Girobank'' and finally ''Girobank plc'' be ...

, a major provider of cash handling services to the government and large companies which also offered current accounts from the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. With other large building societies such as Halifax and

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

, Alliance & Leicester decided to float on the London Stock Exchange, generating windfall payments to members worth up to £5,000 each. Flotation took place on 21 April 1997. From the end of the 1980s until the mid-1990s, Alliance & Leicester undertook a long-running television advertising campaign, featuring comedians

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

and

Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...

Takeover

Alliance & Leicester had to be offered a secret £3 billion credit line by HM Treasury in November 2007 to prevent insolvency and a run on the bank. On 14 July 2008 the board of A&L recommended that shareholders accept a takeover bid from

Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres ...

for around £1.26 billion. This recommendation was ratified by shareholders at meetings on 16 September 2008. The takeover took effect on 10 October 2008, when shares of the company were

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are officially traded on a stock exchange. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, sub ...

from the London Stock Exchange. The bank transferred its business into Santander UK on 28 May 2010, following a hearing at the

Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...

on 13 May 2010, as part of the procedure within the

Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000c 8 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a regulator for insurance, investment business and banking, and the Financial Ombudsman Serv ...

. Until this time, Alliance & Leicester was as a separate institution with its own banking licence while at the same time migrating customer accounts to the Partenon software system.

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

and the

Bradford & Bingley Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley. The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society's mem ...

savings business were rebranded in January 2010. Branches of Alliance & Leicester were rebranded at the end of 2010.

Services

Alliance and Leicester, Omagh, January 2010

The four business sectors were mortgage lending and investments,

personal banking Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking servi ...

commercial banking A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

and

treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

. Alliance & Leicester provided

current account Current account or Current Account may refer to: * Current account (balance of payments), a country's balance of trade, net of factor income and cash transfers * Current account (banking) A transaction account, also called a checking account, ch ...

s, general insurance,

life assurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

unit trust A unit trust is a form of collective investment constituted under a trust deed. A unit trust pools investors' money into a single fund, which is managed by a fund manager. Unit trusts offer access to a wide range of investments, and depending on ...

s, asset financing and commercial lending. The bank also operated

Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business demutualised in the middle of 1997, when it was floated on ...

. Credit cards were also provided through a partnership with

MBNA MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006. History The former Maryland National ...

until the acquisition by Santander. Cards were subsequently reissued with MBNA branding, while Alliance & Leicester began solely providing Santander branded credit cards, provided by Santander Cards Limited.Alliance & Leicester Credit Card: Help
MBNA Selected investment products were also provided, together with those from

Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...

, with which the bank had a partnership. Alliance & Leicester operated an international

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

based on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

, which passed to Santander UK.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alliance and Leicester Banco Santander Leicester British companies established in 1985 Banks established in 1985 Banks disestablished in 2011 1985 establishments in England 2011 disestablishments in England Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange