BANK ASSET AND LIABILITY MANAGEMENT

Bank Asset And Liability Management

Bank Asset And Liability Management

Introduction

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. It is the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax brands; HBOS Australia, and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited, the group's insurance division.

HBOS was formed by the 2001 merger of Halifax plc and the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland,[1] and the formation of HBOS was heralded as creating a fifth force in British banking as it created a company of comparable size and stature to the established Big Four UK retail banks. It is also the UK's largest mortgage lender.[2] HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 saw the transfer of Halifax plc to the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland, which was now a registered public limited company, Bank of Scotland plc.

Discussion

Halifax is a commercial bank and is the largest provider of residential mortgages in the UK. Headquartered at Halifax in West Yorkshire, Halifax is a part of the HBOS that came into operation after the merger of Halifax Bank and Bank of Scotland in 2001. After merging, the HBOS became the fifth largest bank in the UK but since 2001 it has overtaken the Lloyds TSB and is now the fourth largest banking force in the country. The slogan of Halifax plc is “Always giving you an extra".

Formed as the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society in 1853 and merged with Halifax Equitable Building Society in 1928, the renamed Halifax Building Society was five times larger than its closest rival and had an asset of £47m. It was the largest building society in the UK and entered into banking business by offering current accounts and credit cards in the 20th century. After the 1986 Act of demutualization of building societies, the new bank Halifax plc was the fifth largest in the country in terms of market capitalization and it established Intelligent Finance, a telephone and internet based banking in 2000. In the year of 2001, the UK banking market experienced the wave of consolidation and it was the time that Halifax had a merger with Bank of Scotland at £10.8 billion and the new group was now named as Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). In Scotland the Halifax brand name is associated with mortgages and saving products only while the Bank of Scotland brand name is used for business banking in the UK. As per the HBOS Group Reorganization Act 2006, the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc will be transferred to Bank of Scotland plc under the brand name of Halifax plc, which will no longer be a corporate entity.

As the best mortgage lender in the UK, the Halifax plc offers a number of services both in mortgage and in banking. The corporate portal offers a bunch of services online and ...