Halifax is a brand name of
Bank of ScotlandThe Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to remain...
, a subsidiary of the
Lloyds Banking GroupLloyds Banking Group plc is a British-based financial institution, formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. As at 1 September 2009, HM Treasury holds a 43.4% shareholding through UK Financial Investments Limited...
. In the United Kingdom, the Halifax is used as brand for Bank of Scotland branches in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and for savings and mortgages in Scotland. Halifax is the UK's largest provider of residential mortgages and saving accounts. It is named after the town of
HalifaxHalifax is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England, with an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece Hall...
,
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
where it retains its headquarters. Its slogan is "Always giving you extra".
Before 17 September 2007, Halifax was a separate bank. It was previously the UK's largest
building societyA building society is a financial institution, owned by its members, that offers banking and other financial services, especially mortgage lending....
, known as the
Halifax Building Society. The Halifax Building Society demutualised in 1997 becoming Halifax plc and later merged with the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland to form HBOS Group. In 2006, the
HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 is a private Act of Parliament, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2006. The aim of the act was to provide HBOS plc, a banking and insurance group in the UK, the legal authority to reorganise its subsidiaries into a simplified structure...
transferred the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc to the Bank of Scotland and Halifax was retained as a separate brand name. On 19 January 2009, Bank of Scotland plc became part of Lloyds Banking Group following its acquisition of HBOS.
The Company was once a constituent of the
FTSE 100 IndexThe FTSE 100 Index — also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "footsie" — is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange...
.
On the Friday 16th of October 2009, Halifax was sold to LSL for a fee of £1. The branches are to be renamed as one of LSL's existing brands.
Formation
The Halifax was formed in 1853 as the
The Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society. The idea was thought up in a meeting room situated above The Old Cock Inn close to the original Building Society building. Like all early building societies, the purpose of the Society was for the mutual benefit of local working people. Investors with surplus cash would invest in the society to receive interest, and borrowers could access loans to fund the purchase of a house.
Unlike many UK building societies which grew large by acquisitions and mergers, the Society choose an organic form of growth, and proceeded to open branches throughout the UK. By 1913, it was the largest building society in the UK. The first office in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
opened in 1924; and the first offices in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1928.
Halifax Building Society
In 1928, it merged with
Halifax Equitable Building Society, then the second largest building society and was renamed
Halifax Building Society. The Society was now five times larger than its nearest rival, with assets of £47 million.
A new Head Office was built at Trinity Road, Halifax in 1973. The distinctive diamond shaped building was used on marketing material during the 1980s and 90s. Underneath the building is a specially constructed deedstore which is used to store property
deedA deed is a signed and usually sealed legal instrument in writing used to grant a right. Deeds have historically been part of the broader category of instruments under seal, requiring only the affixing of a common seal to render them valid. Today, however, deeds are instruments in solemn form...
s for a one off charge of £10. It is computerised and filled with
gasThis page is about the physical properties of gas as a state of matter. For the uses of gases, and other meanings, see Gas .A gas is one of four states of matter. Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid...
to prevent
fireFire is the rapid oxidation of a combustible material releasing heat, light, and various reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the...
. Its importance has diminished in recent years because property data is now kept on a central database kept by
Her Majesty's Land RegistryLand Registry is a British Governmental organisation created in 1862. Land Registry is responsible for publicly recording interests in registered land in England and Wales and reports to the Ministry of Justice...
.
Diversification
The Society continued to grow in size throughout the 20th century, remaining the UK's largest building society. The deregulation of the financial services industry in the 1980s saw the passing of the Building Societies Act 1986 which allowed societies greater financial freedoms, and diversification into other markets. Accordingly the Halifax acquired an estate agent to complement its mortgage business. It also expanded by offering current accounts and
credit cardA credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
s, traditionally services offered by commercial banks.
Demutualisation
The 1986 Act also allowed building societies to demutualise, and become
public limited companies-Business:* Public limited company, in the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, is a type of limited company whose shares may be sold to the public* Program length commercial, or infomercial* Product life cycle, the succession of stages a product goes through...
instead of mutually owned organisations, owned by the customers who borrowed and saved with the society. Although the Abbey National demutualised in 1989, the process was not repeated until the late 1990s, when most of the large societies announced demutalisation plans. In 1995, the Halifax announced it was to merge with the
Leeds Permanent Building SocietyThe Leeds Permanent Building Society was a building society founded in Leeds, England in 1846 and was commonly known in a shortened form as The Leeds...
and convert to a plc. The Halifax floated on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1801, it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, with many overseas listings as well as British companies...
on 2 June 1997. Over 7.5 million customers of the Society became shareholders of the new bank, the largest extension of shareholders in UK history.
Halifax plc
As Halifax plc, the new bank was the fifth largest in the UK in terms of market capitalisation. Further expansion took place with the 1996 acquisition of Clerical Medical Fund Managers, a UK life insurance company. In 1999, the Halifax acquired the
Birmingham Midshires Building SocietyBirmingham Midshires is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, a division of Bank of Scotland plc . It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton, England and has 67 offices throughout England...
and
ComparetheLoan. In 2000, Halifax established
Intelligent FinanceIntelligent Finance is an offset bank operating in the United Kingdom, a division of Bank of Scotland plc which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. It was established as a division of Halifax plc in 2000 by Jim Spowart, who helped establish other direct financial services firms including Direct Line...
, a telephone and internet based bank.
Formation of HBOS
In 2001, a wave of consolidation in the UK banking market led Halifax to agree a £10.8 billion merger with the
Bank of ScotlandThe Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to remain...
. The new group was named
Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS)HBOS plc is 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...
with headquarters in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, but retaining both Halifax and the Bank of Scotland as brand names. However in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Halifax branches were amalgamated with the Bank of Scotland, and the Halifax brand is now only used for branding mortgages and savings products. Halifax branches in the rest of the UK use the Bank of Scotland brand for business banking. In 2006, the opposite occurred when the
Bank of Scotland (Ireland)Halifax Ireland is a bank in Ireland, a subsidiary of the Bank of Scotland, which in turn is a part of the Lloyds Banking Group.-Services:Until January 2006, the company did not have a widespread main street retail banking operation, but instead specialised in business and corporate banking...
, HBOS's main retail bank in the Republic of Ireland, announced that it would be rebranding its retail business as Halifax, citing the Irish public's exposure to Halifax advertising on
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
as among the reasons. The Bank of Scotland name was to be retained for business banking.
In 2006, the
HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 is a private Act of Parliament, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2006. The aim of the act was to provide HBOS plc, a banking and insurance group in the UK, the legal authority to reorganise its subsidiaries into a simplified structure...
was passed. The aim of the Act was to simplify the corporate structure of HBOS. The Act was fully implemented on 17 September 2007 and the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc transferred to Bank of Scotland plc. The Halifax brand name was to be retained as a trading style, but it no longer exists as a corporate entity.
Lloyds Banking Group
HBOS was acquired by the Lloyds Banking Group in January 2009 amid falling share price and speculation as to its future. The group was thought to have been heavily leveraged with "toxic debt". Bank of Scotland plc and all its brands including Halifax became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Group.
TV adverts
Halifax pioneered an innovative approach to bank adverts in 2000, when it allowed its staff to star in adverts, singing popular songs with the words changed to reflect financial services products. Halifax worker
Howard BrownHoward Brown is an employee of HBOS plc, which owns both Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank in the United Kingdom. He is known for his appearances in Halifax television advertisements, often singing and dancing...
is the regular star of the adverts. Following the merger with the Bank of Scotland, this practice has continued, with the Bank of Scotland also allowing its staff to take part.
In December 2006, Natalie Webster and four other Halifax colleagues Richard Willoughby, Jilly Ellard, Nicola Roberts and Paul Dudley, flew to
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi or Jo'burg, is the largest city in South Africa. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
to film the 'Halifax remix' of
Aretha FranklinAretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul". Although renowned for her soul recordings, Franklin is also adept at jazz, rock, soul, blues, pop, R&B and Gospel music...
's "Think". The advert has been on air since February 2007. Another advert filmed stars Thomas Yau from Leeds singing a version of
Herman's HermitsHerman's Hermits were an English pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's management and producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
"
I'm into Something Good"I'm into Something Good" is a song composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and made famous by Herman's Hermits.- Profile :The song was originally recorded by Cookies member Earl-Jean McCrea in 1964 and reached No. 38 on the US chart. Then very soon Herman's Hermits remade it as their debut...
". This advert has been on air since January 2008.
External links