Williams & Glyn's Bank Limited was established in London in 1970, when the Royal Bank of Scotland merged its two subsidiaries in England and Wales, Williams Deacon's Bank Ltd. and Glyn, Mills & Co.The Williams & Glyn's Bank Act 1970 (cap. 14), see HC Deb. 23 July 1970 Vol. 804 cc.758-60 for Royal Assent In 1985, Williams & Glyn's was fully absorbed into the Royal Bank of Scotland and ceased to trade separately.Williams & Glyn's Bank Ltd, London, 1970–85The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Heritage Archives (retrieved 23 November 2009)
Williams & Glyn later returned as a division of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and National Westminster Bank (NatWest), consisting of 307 RBS branches in England and Wales and NatWest branches in Scotland. The division was formed because the then RBS Group, owner of the two banks, was required by the European Union (EU) to divest a portion of its business after HM Government took an 84% stake in the group during the 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package, which the EU classed as state aid. RBS Group was required to divest Williams & Glyn by the end of 2017. The Williams & Glyn unit had approximately 250,000 small business customers, 1,200 medium business customers and 1.8 million personal banking customers.
A consortium including Kuwait Investments, Corsair Capital, Centerbridge Capital and the Church of England invested £600 million into the business in September 2013, in exchange for equity once the bank was floated in an initial public offering (IPO). On 5 August 2016, RBS Group announced it had abandoned plans to spin off Williams & Glyn as a stand-alone business, stating that the new bank could not survive on its own due to Brexit. The group was to sell the unit to another bank as an asset transfer.
In February 2017, HM Treasury and the European Commission reached a provisional agreement in which RBS would be able to retain the Williams & Glyn assets in return for investing £833 million into a fund aimed at increasing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending by challenger banks and for RBS agreeing to allow SME customers of challenger banks to use its branch network for cash and cheque handling. A final agreement for the retention of the Williams & Glyn assets by RBS Group was approved by the European Commission in September 2017. RBS Group announced its intentions to close 162 of the branches that were to have formed Williams & Glyn in April 2018. The closure of a further 54 branches was announced in September 2018.
History
Williams Deacon's Bank and the Manchester & Salford Bank
The London private bank of Williams Deacon & Co can date its history back to 1771 when the partnership of Raymond, Williams, Vere, Lowe and Fletcher was first recorded. It ceased payment in 1825 and was reconstituted with different shareholders as Williams, Deacon, Labouchere & Co, before finally becoming Williams Deacon in 1882. It was acquired by the Manchester & Salford Bank in 1890.A H Allman et al, Williams Deacon’s 1771–1970 (1971)
The Manchester & Salford Bank was founded in 1836 as a joint stock bank and became a substantial force in Lancashire banking and by 1890 it had over 45 branches. In that year it acquired Williams Deacon, primarily to obtain the latter's seat on the London Bankers' Clearing House. The registered office was moved to London but the head office remained in Manchester. The bank also changed its name to Williams Deacon & Manchester & Salford Bank, shortened to Williams Deacon's Bank in 1901.
The enlarged bank continued to expand but its commitment to the declining cotton industry after World War I, exacerbated by the effects of the Great Depression, stretched its own finances and, encouraged by the Bank of England, Williams Deacon's was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1930.
Glyn, Mills & Co.
Glyn, Mills & Co. was founded as the private bank, Vere, Glyn & Hallifax, in the City of London in 1753 by Joseph Vere, Richard Glyn and Thomas Hallifax. The Vere family interest ended in 1766; William Mills joined in 1772; and when the last of the Hallifaxes departed in 1851 the Bank became known as Glyn, Mills & Company.
Acquisitions included Currie's in 1864, Holt & Co. in 1923 and Child & Co. in 1924. Child & Company, founded in the 1580s, remains part of RBS Group Wealth Management today.Child & Co, London, c.1580s-date The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Heritage Archives (retrieved 23 November 2009) In 1923, it also acquired the private military bank Holt & Co. founded in 1809, which continued to trade separately until merged into the Drummonds Bank business in 1992.Holt & Co, London, 1809–1992 The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Heritage Archives (retrieved 11 May 2010)Holt's Military Banking Royal Bank of Scotland (retrieved 11 May 2010)
In 1939, the bank was purchased by Royal Bank of Scotland, which became known as the Three Banks Group.Glyn, Mills & Co, London, 1753–1970 The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Heritage Archives (retrieved 23 November 2009)
National Bank The National Bank of Ireland was founded in London in 1835, becoming The National Bank Limited in 1859. The bank's core Irish business was divested to the Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland as National Bank of Ireland in 1966.Not to be confused with the present day National Irish Bank, formed in 1986 as Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited, the National Bank of Ireland was merged into the Bank of Ireland in 1969 The remaining branches in England and Wales were acquired by National Commercial Bank of Scotland (itself formed by the 1959 merger of National Bank of Scotland and Commercial Bank of Scotland), although they continued to trade separately.
In 1969, National Commercial Bank merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland and, in 1970, the National Bank branches became part of the newly formed Williams & Glyn's Bank, consolidating their interests south of the border.The National Bank Ltd, London, 1835–1970 The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Heritage Archives (retrieved 23 November 2009) In 1972, Williams & Glyn's and five other banks formed the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks, of which RBS Group remains a member, to exploit opportunities in the then European Economic Community.The Royal Bank of Scotland Group The Inter-Alpha Group of Banks (retrieved 21 January 2010)
Proposed revival of the brand
Project Rainbow In 2000, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group acquired National Westminster Bank in a hostile takeover.NatWest takeover battle BBC News, 11 February 2000 09:53 GMT In 2009 it was announced that all 311 Royal Bank branches in England and Wales together with the seven Scottish branches of NatWest were to be divested by the troubled group, under the dormant Williams & Glyn's brand, to comply with European Union state aid requirements.Announcement on the APS and State Aid Discussions The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Company Announcements, 3 November 2009Scottish Branch Sale National Westminster Bank (retrieved 23 November 2009). In 1975 NatWest had been one of the first London banks to open a representative office in Scotland The process was expected to take up to four years to complete.Hill, Andrew Welcome back, Williams & Glyn’s, the SME’s friend The Financial Times, 13 October 2009Mason, Rowena and Blackden, Richard New banks on the High Street: Williams and Glyn's The Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2009
Agreement with Santander Group In March 2010, it was reported that the group had issued a sales memorandum for the business, which would include 318 branches and around £20 billion in loans provided to small businesses and households. Following the deadline for initial bids on 7 April, Santander Group, Virgin Money, National Australia Bank, BBVA and the private equity firm JC Flowers were all confirmed to have submitted bids for consideration.
As a condition of the British Government purchasing an 81% shareholding in the group in 2009, the European Commission ruled that RBS sell a portion of its business, as the purchase was categorised as state aid. In August 2010, the group reached an agreement to sell 318 branches to Santander UK, made up of the RBS branches in England and Wales and the NatWest branches in Scotland. It was announced on 3 August that the Spanish Santander Group would pay around £1.65 billion for the branches, expected to be rebranded as part of Santander UK, in a deal set to be completed by December 2013.RBS sells 318 branches to Santander BBC News, 4 August 2010 11:40 BST Santander withdrew from the sale on 12 October 2012.
Agreement with Corsair consortium In September 2013, the group confirmed it had reached an agreement to sell 314 branches to the Corsair consortium, made up of private equity firms and a number of institutional investors. The branches, incorporating 250,000 small business customers, 1,200 medium business customers and 1.8 million personal banking customers, were due to separated from the group in 2016 as a standalone business under the Williams & Glyn's name. By May 2015, the total number of branches included in the new business had been reduced to 307.
Preparation for launch In October 2015, the RBS Group submitted an application for a banking licence for the new bank. The group also published its transition plan for the launch of Williams & Glyn. According to the plan, a website for the new bank would have been launched and branch signage would have been changed to the Williams & Glyn identity, which would have initially operated as a trading name used by Royal Bank of Scotland plc in England and in Wales and National Westminster Bank plc in Scotland. In the lead up to the formal launch of the new bank, which was expected in early 2017, customers would have been able to access Williams & Glyn branded internet, mobile and telephone banking services, and would have received new branch sorting codes and new debit cards. To facilitate the transition, separate internet and telephone banking systems were created for RBS customers in England and Wales. Planning applications for the erection of new branch signage bearing the Williams & Glyn brand identity were submitted to local authorities across the north of England in early 2016. A standalone ATM network for the new Williams and Glyn bank was created in June 2016.
Cancellation On 16 December 2015, RBS confirmed it had received a number of informal offers for the bank, and would seek to complete a sale by the end of 2017. HM Treasury subsequently announced it had asked the Competition and Markets Authority to suspend a review into how competitive the bank would be in the UK banking sector.
On 5 August 2016, RBS published details of the group's half-yearly financial results, revealing a £2.05 billion loss for the first half of 2016. RBS Group blamed historically low interest rates and the fallout from the UK's 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum with uncertainties caused by the pro-Brexit result. The result indicated, according to RBS, that Williams & Glyn would not prosper as an independent bank. Instead, Reuters reported that Santander UK was interested in buying the unit outright.
In August 2016, RBS cancelled its plan to spin off Williams & Glyn as a separate business, stating that the new bank could not survive independently. It revealed it would instead seek to sell the operation to another bank.
Santander had abandoned talks in September 2016. CYBG plc, owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, confirmed in October 2016 that it had made what it described as a "preliminary non-binding proposal" for the unit. In the same month RBS confirmed that it would be unable to sell Williams & Glyn by the end of 2017, potentially giving the European Commission the right to take control of the sales process.