Intelligent Finance (IF) is a Scottish

offset bank An offset loan is a type of lending arrangement, usually for a mortgage, in which a borrower also maintains a savings account with the lender. Instead of receiving interest on the savings account, the interest payment due on the loan is calculated o ...

, a division of

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

plc which is part of

Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...

. It was established as a division of Halifax plc in 1999 by Jim Spowart, who helped establish other direct financial services firms including

Direct Line Direct Line is an insurance company based in Bromley, England. Founded in 1985, as the country's first direct car insurance company, it has since expanded to offer a range of general insurance products. Its policies are underwritten by the regul ...

. Following a reorganisation of the

HBOS HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank ...

group, it is now a division of

plc. IF's registered headquarters are in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, with customer service operations based in Scotland (

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...

, and

Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

. It operates throughout the United Kingdom. IF was set up at a time when many banks were exploring opportunities to use new technology to reduce the costs of providing financial services. IF established what it marketed as "intelligent" products whereby customer pick a combination of all or some of a range of bank accounts including current account, savings account,

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

and

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

. The credit balance in a person's current account and saving accounts would "offset" any debit balances in the person's mortgage and credit card accounts. The customer would then pay interest on the net balance, potentially allowing savings to be made on borrowings. However, in June 2005 IF withdrew its offset credit card, citing high running costs. Although the bank was hit by technical problems at its launch, it quickly gained a significant market share in the mortgage and current account market, and is still one of the largest in the U.K Intelligent Finance sponsored the Scottish First Division football team Livingston FC. From 2006 to 2008 it sponsored the if.comedies award, successor to the

Perrier Comedy Award The Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. ...

, at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. In July 2009, Intelligent Finance withdrew its mortgage and current account products to new customers, although existing customers were unaffected. In March 2013, Intelligent Finance withdrew all its remaining products to new customers. As with mortgages, existing customers continued to be able to operate their accounts. In Summer 2014, Intelligent Finance asked its savings customers to consider moving their accounts to TSB Bank. Lloyds Banking Group was asked to close Intelligent Finance to new business by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

in order to reduce their market share.MyIF.com
/ref>

References

External links

* Banks of Scotland Lloyds Banking Group British companies established in 1999 Banks established in 1999 Companies based in Edinburgh 1999 establishments in Scotland Financial services brands {{Europe-bank-stub