New Banks for the U.K.

ince Cable, the Business Secretary, will tomorrow pledge to remove
obstacles to new entrants to Britain's banking industry, days ahead of a
key report intended to promote the emergence of fresh high street
competition.I've been told that Mr Cable will jointly host a
meeting tomorrow afternoon with representatives of lenders including
NBNK Investments, the acquisition vehicle which suspended its shares
this week after confirming its interest in buying the Clydesdale and
Yorkshire banks. Intriguingly, National Australia Bank, which owns those
two lenders, will also attend despite the fact that it looks set to
abandon the UK market.
Virgin Money, the financial services arm of
Sir Richard Branson's business empire, will also be there, along with
Walton & Co, Metro Bank (the first new high street bank in Britain
for generations, Aldermore and Handelsbanken (the Swedish bank) will
also be among the attendees.
Mr Cable said this evening that removing barriers to entry to new banks would help stimulate the wider economy.
“Increasing
competition in the banking sector will provide consumers and businesses
with a better service and a more diverse range of financial products,"
he said.
“It is encouraging that new entrants are now arriving on
the scene offering innovative services and products at reasonable
prices, and I want to see this trend continue. I have called a meeting
with these banks to discuss how government can help them get established
in the UK market. If we are to drive growth in our economy, we must
ensure that small businesses in particular have a better provision of
financial services available to them.”
Mr Cable will be
accompanied by Mark Hoban, the City minister, and Clive Maxwell, a
director at the Office of Fair Trading who was involved in last year's
report by the competition body, which was severely critical of the lack
of competition among the big players such as Barclays, Lloyds TSB and
NatWest.
The timing of the meeting is also interesting given that
it is so close to Monday's publication of the final report of the
Independent Commission on Banking (ICB).
As I reported yesterday,
among the measures it will recommend will be the establishment of a
resource for new entrants to the sector that contains detailed credit
information about all UK companies.
Incidentally, the most
unexpected name on the list of those attending tomorrow's meeting is
that of Silicon Valley bank, which I'm told is close to getting its
hands on a full banking licence from the City regulator. It's not a name
I'm familiar with but its website describes it as providing
"diversified financial services to emerging growth and mature companies
in the technology, life science, private equity and premium wine
markets".




Mark Kleinman.... Sky News




New Names on our High Street????? For such a small Country Britain has more Banks and Building Societies that can be monitored NOW, and since
it was the Banks who caused this WorldWide crisis stringent rules must be introduced.

The independent Commission has said the Banks should have until 2019 to change it"s Policy and must ring fence the Retail Section so that customer accounts held will not be used to finance other areas of investments.

Lloyds have been told to sell additional Branches to those ordered by the EU to reduce it"s £20 Billion debt.


Pity the FSA did not monitor the Banks years ago as they were commissioned to do, we would not be in the mess we are in now. This sale will result
in a further loss by the Government .