Top 10 British Banks

In recent years, the British Banking system has become highly concentrated due to the wave of mergers following the credit crunch.

Top 5 British Owned banks

Smaller Banks

• Co-operative Bank owned by The Co-operative Group.
• Sainsbury’s Bank: 50% owned by British supermarket company Sainsbury’s and 50% owned by Lloyds Banking Group.
• Tesco Bank: owned by British supermarket company Tesco.

Government Ownership of UK Banks

• Royal Bank of Scotland Group 84% owned by government
• Lloyds Banking group 43% owned by government

10 Largest UK Retail Banks

1. HSBC
2. Royal Bank of Scotland
3. Lloyds TSB
4. Halifax (owned by Lloyds)
5. Bank of Scotland (owned by Lloyds)
6. Barclays
7. Santander (Spanish Owned) (was Abbey, also incorporated Bradford & Bingley)
8. Co-operative
9. Nationwide (classed as building society)
10. Tesco bank

Some interesting facts about British banks.

• They employ 0.5million people

• Banks and financial services contribute £70bn to the UK’s national output (6.8% of GDP)
• Banks and financial services provide 25% of total corporation tax (£8bn) to the UK Gov
• The main retail banks provide over 125m accounts, clear 7bn transactions a year and facilitate 2.3bn cash withdrawals per year from its network of over 30,000 free ATMs
• Banks provide banking services to 95% of the UKs population
• The value of foreign exchange business passed through London every day is £560bn ($1 trillion)

Source: Top 10 British Bank facts at BBA

Banks Definition at economics dictionary