Mortgage News
New bank set to launch into UK
A new retail, mortgage and savings bank called The Home and Savings Bank will be launched this year.
An anonymous source said that the bank will offer mortgages and savings accounts with a traditional building society style ethos.
Mortgage Solutions understands that The Home and Savings Bank plans to build a branch network by bidding for Northern Rock and the assets which are being sold off by Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Peter Birch, former chief executive at Abbey, will become the chairman, with Stuart Sinclair, the ex-head of Tesco Personal Finance, rumoured to become chief executive. Ex-Pink Home Loans chief executive officer Barry Meeks and ex-Trigold chief Martin Finegold will also have roles in the bank.
A source at a London-based private equity firm, who wished to remain anonymous, said that US private equity firm Blackstone is backing the new bank after raising more than £250m.
Last year, Blackstone applied to the FSA for a UK deposit-taking banking licence and submitted details of its board structure and proposed strategy to the regulator.
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Kevin Duffy, managing director of Mortgageforce, said: “We will wait to see if the likely scale of its funding lines and operation will be sufficient to support more than just a narrow panel of key intermediaries.”