Benny Higgins is a Scottish banker, and is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of
Tesco Bank
Tesco Bank is a British retail bank which was formed in July 1997 (as Tesco ''Personal Finance''), and which has been wholly owned by Tesco plc since 2008. The bank was formed as part of a 50:50 joint venture between The Royal Bank of Scotland a ...
.
Upbringing
He was brought up in Prospecthill Circus in
Toryglen
Toryglen is a district in southern Glasgow, Scotland, falling within the Langside ward under Glasgow City Council. It is approximately two miles south of the city centre, bounded to the west by Mount Florida, the north-west by Polmadie, to the n ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Scotland.
He attended
Holyrood Secondary School
("By this conquer!")
, established = 1936
, closed =
, type = Comprehensive
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic
, president =
, head_name =
, head ...
in the city.
Career
After achieving a first-class degree in mathematics at The
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
, Higgins began his career in 1983 at
Standard Life
Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group.
History 1825–2010
The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance ...
in Edinburgh, initially qualifying as an
actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...
in a then-record 2½ years before becoming an investment manager.
Higgins left in 1997 for the
Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...
, where he became chief executive of Retail Banking and was involved in setting up
Tesco Personal Finance (a 50:50 joint venture with Tesco). He was part of the team (alongside
Fred Goodwin
Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS (born 17 August 1958) is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.
From 2000 to 2008, he pre ...
and
George Mathewson
Sir George Ross Mathewson, (born 14 May 1940) is a Scottish businessman. He is best known for transforming the Scottish bank The Royal Bank of Scotland from a struggling regional player into a quasi global bank with parallels to Citigroup or HS ...
) that acquired and integrated
NatWest
National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it ...
in 2000. At the time of his departure from RBS at the end of 2005 he was chief executive of the Retail Bank which covered both the RBS and NatWest brands.
In January 2006, he took the helm of the Retail Business at HBOS. However, he departed at the end of 2007. During his tenure, Higgins' conservative mortgage strategy led to a fall in the share of the market for new mortgage lending from 16 per cent to 8 per cent, although on announcing Higgins' resignation Hornby explicitly denied any link. Analysts were less kind at the time. "Benny Higgins is carrying the can ... for the mortgage debacle in the first half of this year," one said. "He was supposed to be the next big thing for HBOS, coming in from RBS to shake up the HBOS business. Obviously he's been given his marching orders." As
events unfolded, however, even his critics have conceded that he was right and had the courage of his convictions. One journalist said, "He must be the only banker who was fired for being right!"
After a short sabbatical, Higgins returned to banking, taking the position of CEO of
Tesco Personal Finance, later renamed to
Tesco Bank
Tesco Bank is a British retail bank which was formed in July 1997 (as Tesco ''Personal Finance''), and which has been wholly owned by Tesco plc since 2008. The bank was formed as part of a 50:50 joint venture between The Royal Bank of Scotland a ...
, following Tesco's buy out of RBS's share of their 50:50 joint venture on 28 July 2008. In 2009, he launched ''Putting Tesco into Banking and Insurance'', a book setting out his vision for Tesco "to become a natural provider of financial services for Tesco Customers". As of 2017, he was chairman of the Regulatory Technology company
Kyckr.
In September 2017, First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...
announced that Higgins would assist the
Scottish Government in establishing a
Scottish National Investment Bank
The Scottish National Investment Bank is a Scottish state-owned investment and national development bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Although referred to as a bank, it does not do normal banking operations nor accepts deposits. The bank uses ...
for Scottish infrastructure investment.
In 2019 he became chairman of the
Duke of Buccleuch
Duke of Buccleuch (pronounced ), formerly also spelt Duke of Buccleugh, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created twice on 20 April 1663, first for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and second suo jure for his wife Anne Scott, 4th Cou ...
's estates company, managing the extensive portfolio of property and land owned by the family.
Honours and awards
In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
.
Other interests
Higgins was a keen footballer and played for
Glasgow Celtic
The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...
, captaining the youth team in the late 1970s.
[ In 2017, he took on an unpaid role as chairman of the ]National Galleries of Scotland
National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections o ...
,[ and the following year accepted a similar position at Sistema Scotland, a children's orchestra charity (succeeding ]Richard Holloway
Richard Holloway FRSE (born 26 November 1933) is a Scottish writer, broadcaster and cleric. He was the Bishop of Edinburgh from 1986 to 2000 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1992 to 2000.
Early life and education
Born in Po ...
).
He has an interest in literature which he has sometimes used to ruthless effect. At an HBOS investor annual results event, Peter Cummings, his then corporate counterpart, told analysts he felt "very, very optimistic" about the future. Higgins followed up by relating the story of Pollyanna
''Pollyanna'' is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' (1915). Eleven more ''Pollyanna'' sequels, know ...
, the over-optimistic girl who ended up falling out of a tree.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Benny
1960 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Businesspeople from Glasgow
Scottish bankers
People educated at Holyrood Secondary School
Scottish footballers
Celtic F.C. players
Association football defenders
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh