Bradford & Bingley

Situated in the town of Bingley, the British operated Bradford & Bingley was nationalized in 2008. The aftermath witnessed the institution’s division into two parts. The nationalized public limited company retained its mortgage book, while the network of branches and all deposits were sold to Abbey National.

To combat the effects of the mortgage crisis, the bank launched a 2008 new issue which totaled £400 million. The shares were ill-received by the shareholders and in September, the company’s share price reached its lowest levels. As a result, 370 people lost their jobs and the bank decided to seek assistance by the Government and Financial Service Authorities.

Various sources announced that Bradford & Bingley will be entirely nationalized due to the absence of interested buyers. It became obvious that the bank’s savings business (worth £20 billion) will be acquired by Grupo Santander. The corporation paid the price of £612 million which covered £208 million of offshore capital. The bank was acquired through Abbey, the Santander’s subsidiary. At present, the retail deposit branches of the bank are managed by Santander. The transfer was conducted by Morgan Stanley, acting on behalf of HM`s Treasury. Currently, the bank has no offers for mortgage packages, although existing mortgages are still administered.

The management body announced a price of £256 million while its shares were worth 20 p each as of 26 September. In contrast, its 2006 price was £3.2 billion.

The bank was also involved in the retail businesses. At the end of 2007, the entity operated 197 branches while its retail products were offered at 140 agent locations. Face-to-face advice was also offered, together with intermediary and online distribution.

Bradford & Bindley offered a wide range of real estate and mortgage products. After the takeover, the bank offers no new real estate and mortgage products on the market. Furthermore, the process of nationalization revealed that Bradford & Bingley has more than a hundred separate trademarks used for its logo.