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Royal & Sun Alliance is looking to raise up to £300m from the sale of its medical insurance division. 30-Dec-2002 Northern Rock is planning to raise up to £3bn in a bond issue in order to increase its capacity to take on more mortgages. 23-Dec-2002 Gerrard is to close stockbroking offices in Stockton and Huddersfield, in order to create an enlarged regional branch in York. 19-Dec-2002 Zurich Financial Services has announced plans to shed 750 jobs at offices in Swindon and Cheltenham, with IT and customer services staff being hardest hit. 19-Dec-2002 Britannia Building Society is to create 100 new jobs in Staffordshire, following a rise in demand for mortgage products. 18-Dec-2002 Baker Tilly is to relocate its West Yorkshire accountancy operations and 100 staff to a new 12,000 sq ft office at the Whitehall II development in Leeds city centre in January. 13-Dec-2002 Man is to expand into private equity by taking control of Westport and acquiring a 25% stake in Parallel Ventures, in a deal worth less than £10m. 12-Dec-2002 Britannic Asset Management is to shed up to 40 jobs from its 325-strong workforce, affecting Glasgow-based staff in sales, marketing, administration and finance. 11-Dec-2002 Cox Insurance has rejected a proposal for a £250m management buy-out. 09-Dec-2002 Prudential is to shed 150 jobs in Reading with the relocation of its Direct to Customers telesales unit to Belfast early next year. 05-Dec-2002 Royal London is to shed up to 670 jobs in its life assurance business, with sites in Colchester, Edinburgh and Wilmslow being hardest hit. 05-Dec-2002 Britannic Assurance has acquired the outstanding 40% of Britannic Money from First Active for £56m. 04-Dec-2002 Hazell Carr is to open a new office in Stirling in January to help insurance firms with their pension reviews, with the creation of 100 jobs. 04-Dec-2002 AMP is to shed 1,000 sales jobs at its Pearl life assurance subsidiary, with sites in Peterborough and Cambridge being hardest hit, and a further 900 jobs will be lost at its other UK financial services operations. 04-Dec-2002 Its4me is planning to relocate its online insurance intermediary business to larger offices in Norwich, and aims to double the workforce to 80 over the next year. 02-Dec-2002 Abbey National is considering plans to sell off non-core operations in order to focus on UK personal financial services, and businesses under review include mortgage activities in France and Italy and life assurance in Dubai and Hong Kong. 02-Dec-2002 National Australia Bank has announced plans to shed 910 jobs in the UK and Ireland by September 2003, with middle managers and back-office staff being hardest hit. 02-Dec-2002 HBOS is seeking partners to expand its Intelligent Finance online banking business into continental Europe and the US. 02-Dec-2002 Seymour Pierce, the investment banking and fund management company, is considering plans for a £44m management buy-out. 02-Dec-2002 HSBC is planning to move out of five locations in the West End of London next year, in order to relocate to new offices in St James's Street. 02-Dec-2002 Benfield, the reinsurance broker with more than 1,600 staff worldwide, is planning to float in London early next year with a valuation of up to £750m. 29-Nov-2002 Zurich Financial Services is to close its Warranty Management Services office in Prestatyn with the loss of 120 jobs, in order to contract the work out to Home Service GB in Birmingham. 28-Nov-2002 Misys, the financial services software company, has announced plans to set up a £6.5m compliance centre in India next year. 27-Nov-2002 Barclaycard is to transfer 100 administrative jobs from its Thornaby call centre on Teesside to India, which should free up more space for customer services staff. 22-Nov-2002 Teather & Greenwood is in talks to sell about half of its asset management business for about £5m. 19-Nov-2002 Cazenove is to shed 90 jobs in its London-based investment banking business. 15-Nov-2002 Aviva is to close its Norwich Union pensions processing centre at Romford with the loss of 190 jobs, and the work will be transferred to sites in Norwich and Stevenage. 14-Nov-2002 Leeds & Holbeck Building Society is setting up a branch in Gibraltar, and further expansion into continental Europe is expected to follow. 14-Nov-2002 Green Flag is to create more than 300 jobs at a new office at Cavern Court in Liverpool, in order to process technical insurance claims. 13-Nov-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is considering plans to move out of its Berkeley Square headquarters in London, as part of a strategy to reduce the number of UK offices from 80 to 40. 12-Nov-2002 Commerzbank of Germany is planning to shed 350 jobs at its investment banking operations in London and Frankfurt. 12-Nov-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance has announced plans to shed a further 900 jobs in the UK, outsource the jobs of the 2,200 staff administering its closed life business and dispose of operations in Australia, New Zealand and the US. 08-Nov-2002 HSBC is to shed 100 jobs at its investment banking business in London, with equities and corporate finance being hardest hit. 08-Nov-2002 Collins Stewart is in negotiations to acquire Tullett & Tokyo Liberty, the London-based money broker, for about £230m. 08-Nov-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is to expand its MoreThan insurance call centre in Sunderland, with the creation of 60 jobs before the end of the year. 05-Nov-2002 Liberata has won a £200m outsourcing contract to handle the administration for the closed life assurance portfolios of Barclays Life and Woolwich. 05-Nov-2002 Credit Suisse First Boston is said to be planning to shed up to 25% of the 500 staff at its Canary Wharf-based investment banking division. 04-Nov-2002 Close Brothers is to expand its investment banking operations in the US by forming strategic alliances with Harris Williams and Chanin Capital Partners. 04-Nov-2002 Standard Life has secured a licence to operate in the Chinese life assurance market, and will form a joint venture in the city of Tianjin. 04-Nov-2002 Aberdeen Asset Management is planning to raise up to £100m from the flotation of its property arm next year, in order to reduce debt. 04-Nov-2002 Lehman Brothers of the US is shedding 80 investment banking jobs in Europe, with its London operation being hardest hit. 31-Oct-2002 Zurich Financial Services is planning to close its Eagle Star insurance call centre in Bournemouth with the loss of about 400 jobs, although some staff will be transferred to Fareham. 30-Oct-2002 Landsbanki Islands, the Icelandic bank, is planning to spend up to £100m on acquisitions in the UK, and is particularly interested in wealth management and invoice discounting. 30-Oct-2002 Egg is planning to move into the French financial services market with the launch of a new Visa credit card. 30-Oct-2002 Abbey National is to create 40 new jobs at its banking call centre in Gateshead, in order to improve customer service levels. 29-Oct-2002 Land Securities Trillium is seeking up to 3m sq ft of space around the country to provide offices and job centres for the Department for Work & Pensions. 28-Oct-2002 Aviva is considering plans to open a Norwich Union insurance call centre in Sheffield with the creation of up to 700 jobs, as part of an ongoing review of its nationwide property portfolio. 25-Oct-2002 Amvescap, the fund manager, is to shed a further 500 jobs as part of a £100m cost-cutting programme. 25-Oct-2002 Citigroup is planning to shed at least 26 of the 260 jobs at its Schroder Salomon Smith Barney research department in London. 23-Oct-2002 Aviva is planning to relocate 750 Norwich Union insurance staff to a new multi-million pound call centre in Norfolk, and sites are being considered at Thorpe and Costessey. 18-Oct-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is to shed 200 jobs at its Strategic Change & IS sites in Horsham, Liverpool, Bristol, Halifax, Manchester, London, Chelmsford and Bournemouth. 16-Oct-2002 London Forfaiting, the export finance company, has received a number of potential takeover approaches since putting itself up for sale. 14-Oct-2002 Northern Rock, the mortgage bank, is to spend an additional £40m on the expansion of its offices in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in order to cope with the 200 new staff taken on each year. 14-Oct-2002 Hammond Suddards, the law firm, is seeking a suitable site in Birmingham for a 100,000 sq ft office, which could lead to the relocation of 300 staff from its existing site. 14-Oct-2002 Seymour Pierce is planning to split itself in two, by separating its investment banking and fund management operations. 11-Oct-2002 James Brearley & Sons is planning to expand its Lancashire-based stockbroking business into Yorkshire with the opening of a new office by the end of the year. 10-Oct-2002 Wellington Underwriting is to raise £120m in a share placing to finance its new Wellington Re reinsurance business. 10-Oct-2002 Barclays is to create 500 jobs at its banking call centre in Sunderland this year. 03-Oct-2002 Canada Life is to close its UK life insurance and pensions salesforce and transfer some staff to independent financial adviser Lighthouse Group. 01-Oct-2002 Lloyds TSB has announced plans to reorganise its UK service centre business, with the loss of 800 jobs at sites in Chorley, Gateshead, Liverpool, Taunton and Swansea. 30-Sep-2002 Prudential is planning to transfer 850 life and pension call centre jobs and 100 support jobs from Reading to India. 30-Sep-2002 Bradford & Bingley is to expand its mortgage book by acquiring about 6,000 home loans with a value of £650m from General Motors Acceptance Corporation. 30-Sep-2002 Axa Insurance is to recruit 45 additional sales advisers at its office in Darlington. 27-Sep-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is to reorganise its Morethan financial services division and cut its personal insurance lines business from seven centres to four, with the closure of a Birmingham office and the loss of about 150 jobs in Glasgow. 25-Sep-2002 Brit Insurance is to raise £204m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its business outside Lloyd's of London, including a move into the underwriting of motor insurance. 25-Sep-2002 Abbey National is looking to sell its First National consumer credit business by the end of the year, for an estimated £800m. 23-Sep-2002 Laing & Cruickshank is setting up an investment office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with staff previously employed by Merrill Lynch. 20-Sep-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland has won planning permission to build a new headquarters on the 78-acre Gogarburn site in Edinburgh, and its local workforce is expected to rise from 6,800 to more than 8,000. 19-Sep-2002 Atos KPMG Consulting is planning to shed about 200 of the 1,500 jobs in its management consultancy business. 17-Sep-2002 MBNA is to create a further 500 jobs at call centres in Chester, Ireland and Spain this year, following the acquisition of the Alliance & Leicester credit card operation. 16-Sep-2002 Abbey National is said to be planning to shed up to 3,000 of the 28,000 jobs in its banking business, and cost-cutting programmes include the outsourcing of non-core operations and a reduction in backroom staff. 16-Sep-2002 Newcastle Building Society is to create 40 jobs for financial consultants, having decided to establish its own in-house financial services arm to provide investment advice to customers. 13-Sep-2002 Hiscox is raising £110m in a rights issue to support the expansion of its insurance business. 11-Sep-2002 Acxiom is to create more than 60 jobs at its 2Touch call centre in Sunderland, having won a new telesales contract from Stonebridge International Insurance. 10-Sep-2002 Barclays Private Clients International is to relocate its offshore headquarters to Douglas on the Isle of Man, with the creation of 90 jobs. 09-Sep-2002 Teather & Greenwood has shed 35 jobs at its London-based stockbroking business. 09-Sep-2002 Zurich Financial Services is planning to shed up to 2,000 jobs in the UK, as part of a worldwide restructuring that will involve a total of 4,500 jobs losses and the closure of some banking and fund management operations. 06-Sep-2002 NM Rothschild has put its UK asset management business up for sale, which will affect 100 staff at offices in Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Japan and Singapore. 04-Sep-2002 Schroders is planning to shed a further 250 jobs in its investment management business this year, and is close to announcing the sale of its pensions administration division. 04-Sep-2002 Britannic is to shed 200 direct sales jobs in its life assurance business, in order to focus on telephone selling and independent financial advisers. 04-Sep-2002 Green Flag is to set up a new motor claims centre in Liverpool this year, with the creation of 70 jobs, and a number of potential sites are being considered. 03-Sep-2002 Killik is planning to shed 18 jobs in its stockbroking business. 28-Aug-2002 Societe Generale of France is considering plans to reduce the size of its London-based investment banking operation, with the loss of hundreds of jobs. 26-Aug-2002 British Chambers of Commerce is to shed about a third of its 50 London-based staff, in order to cut costs. 22-Aug-2002 Churchill Insurance is creating 120 new jobs at its insurance call centre in Stockton, including 30 homeworkers. 19-Aug-2002 Marks & Spencer is considering plans to set up a bank, in order to add deposit accounts to its range of financial services. 19-Aug-2002 Coutts is planning a £4m expansion of its network of 15 private bank branches outside London, including a new office in Liverpool and 29 new jobs. 19-Aug-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance has announced plans to shed 1,200 jobs and close its life business, in order to focus on general insurance. 09-Aug-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland is seeking further acquisitions in the US, and is thought to be particularly interested in Pennsylvania. 08-Aug-2002 Morgan Stanley is shedding up to 150 jobs in its global investment banking business, with London and New York being hardest hit. 05-Aug-2002 Hugh James, the law firm, is seeking a suitable site for a new 50,000 sq ft headquarters in Cardiff. 05-Aug-2002 Mastercard is to acquire the Switch debit card from a consortium of banks, and up to 28m cards will be rebranded under the Maestro name. 01-Aug-2002 Barclays is planning to shed up to 10% of the 1,000 jobs in its private banking operation, in order to reduce costs. 31-Jul-2002 Social Security Agency has announced plans to set up a new pension claims centre in Londonderry, with the creation of 190 jobs. 26-Jul-2002 Prudential has awarded a multi-million pound contract to Jardine Lloyd Thompson for the provision of pension administration services, and 50 Prudential staff will transfer to JLT. 24-Jul-2002 West Bromwich Building Society is to create 300 jobs over the next five years, due to rising demand for its telephone and internet-based services, and new branches may be opened in towns such as Tamworth, Cannock, Lichfield, Telford and Worcester. 23-Jul-2002 Scottish Financial Enterprise and 18 leading companies are to launch a new training scheme for the investment administration and custody services sector in Edinburgh, in order to tackle a skills shortage in Scotland. 23-Jul-2002 Misys is planning to float its independent financial adviser business, which has an estimated value of more than £400m, in order to focus on its banking and healthcare software operations. 19-Jul-2002 Tellermate, the cash management systems company, is opening a new corporate headquarters for 30 staff at St Mellons in Cardiff this month, and its Newport site will be used as a stand-alone production and research centre for 80 staff. 18-Jul-2002 Chaucer is planning to raise £39m in a share placing to increase the capacity of its Lloyd's insurance underwriting business. 18-Jul-2002 Travelex is planning to set up a money transfer service in the US to enable immigrant workers from Latin America to send their wages home. 17-Jul-2002 KPMG has announced plans to shed a further 750 jobs in its UK accountancy operations, and a further 62 jobs will go at its associated law firm KLegal. 16-Jul-2002 Standard Life is forming a £100m joint venture with Heng-An Life to provide life assurance services in China. 15-Jul-2002 Abbey National is considering plans to sell its £850m portfolio of private equity investments in the UK, Europe and the US. 15-Jul-2002 Abbey National, the UK's sixth largest bank, is said to be facing the prospect of a takeover bid from National Australia Bank. 11-Jul-2002 Marsh & McLennan is to set up a 147,000 sq ft headquarters for its Mercer Human Resources subsidiary at the K2 building in London's St Katharine Docks. 08-Jul-2002 Bank Eurohypo is to set up a 14,000 sq ft headquarters for its mortgage banking business at 90 Long Acre in London. 08-Jul-2002 Zurich Warranty Management Services is creating 30 telemarketing jobs at its office in Prestatyn. 05-Jul-2002 HBOS is to relaunch its fund management business under the name Insight Investment Management in October, with a budget of £40m for marketing and staff costs. 05-Jul-2002 BDML Connect is creating 60 additional jobs at its insurance call centre in Portsmouth. 03-Jul-2002 Deutsche Bank is to shed 320 jobs in the UK, as part of a worldwide cost-cutting exercise that will result in 3,800 job losses in its investment banking and asset management operations over the next 12 months. 28-Jun-2002 Aegon of the Netherlands is to acquire a 50% stake in Wentworth Rose, the independent financial adviser, for undisclosed terms. 26-Jun-2002 Millfield has raised £16m in a share placing to help fund the expansion of its network of financial advisers from 380 to 700 by the end of 2003. 26-Jun-2002 Heath Lambert, the insurance broker, is to raise about £250m in a share issue, and the proceeds will be used for debt reduction and working capital purposes. 24-Jun-2002 Tilney Investment Management is to sell its back office operations to Bank of New York for undisclosed terms. 21-Jun-2002 Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank are to merge their IT departments into a new company, and the future of about 60 jobs in Northern Ireland is undecided. 20-Jun-2002 AMP, the Australian financial services company, has announced plans to shed 1,500 jobs at sites in Peterborough, Cardiff, London, Berkshire and Kent, and its nationwide network of branches will be cut from 57 to 12. 19-Jun-2002 Durlacher is looking to sell its Sharecast online research service in order to focus on its core stockbroking business. 19-Jun-2002 Friends Provident is considering plans to raise up to £800m in the bond market to fund acquisitions for its life insurance business. 17-Jun-2002 Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, the US financial restructuring specialist, is opening its first office in London to co-ordinate its expansion into Europe, and the initial staff of 12 will be increased. 17-Jun-2002 Abbey National is expanding its Inscape wealth management service into the offshore market by opening an advice centre in Jersey, and additional centres are likely to follow in Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Hong Kong. 17-Jun-2002 CGNU is to create 425 jobs at insurance claims centres in Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester, Preston, Bradford, Dundee, Southend, Newcastle, Liverpool and Ipswich, but 750 jobs will be lost through the closure of 11 other sites. 13-Jun-2002 Charles Stanley is looking to spend up to £10m on acquisitions to expand its investment banking business. 13-Jun-2002 Collins Stewart is to advise PRI Group, the newly-formed professional liability insurer, on plans to raise £130m in a flotation on Aim. 13-Jun-2002 London Scottish Bank is seeking acquisitions to expand its consumer credit and factoring operations. 12-Jun-2002 PwC is expected to reorganise its London property portfolio this summer, which will affect up to 3,000 jobs and involve consulting staff at One Embankment Place changing places will those at One London Bridge. 10-Jun-2002 HLF Group, the insurance broker with 117 offices in 47 countries, is planning to raise up to £300m in a flotation, in order to reduce debt and buy out its venture capital investors. 07-Jun-2002 Xansa has announced a £250m deal to handle accounting and financial services for BT, which will involve the transfer of about 570 staff at sites in Bedford, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and London. 06-Jun-2002 UBS Warburg is planning to shed about 200 jobs in London, including 100 in its investment banking, equities and foreign exchange operations. 06-Jun-2002 Marks & Spencer is undertaking a strategic review of its financial services division, which could lead to joint ventures, outsourcing or a partial flotation. 03-Jun-2002 Qdos Consulting, the provider of advice on employment and taxation issues to accountancy and legal firms, is to create a further 20 jobs at its new head office and call centre in Leicester over the next 12 months. 03-Jun-2002 Clifford Chance is setting up its first law practice on the West Coast of the US, with up to 150 staff operating from two main offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco. 31-May-2002 Wellington Underwriting has announced plans to set up a £448m London-based reinsurance business called Wellington Re, which will focus mainly on casualty and property. 30-May-2002 Lex Service is forming a joint venture with Axa Insurance to offer insurance and other financial services under the name of RAC Financial Services. 29-May-2002 Svenska Handelsbanken of Sweden is looking to expand its UK banking business by acquiring a building society. 28-May-2002 Cardpoint is to raise £2.5m in a flotation on Aim to fund the installation of 250 more cash machines. 27-May-2002 WestLB Panmure is considering plans to shed about 100 jobs at its London-based securities business, as part of a cost-cutting programme by German parent Westdeutsche Landesbank. 24-May-2002 Schroders is to shed 19 jobs in its private banking business, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. 22-May-2002 Bradford & Bingley is planning to raise about £30m from the sale and leaseback of a large part of its property portfolio, making it easier to move branches to better locations. 21-May-2002 Groupama of France is to close eight regional insurance offices with the loss of up to 130 jobs, as part of a restructuring of its UK operations that will focus the group on commercial insurance for small businesses. 17-May-2002 Scottish Provident is to close its office in Kendal later this year, with the loss of 210 jobs, in order to relocate the pensions business to existing sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 15-May-2002 Axa Insurance is to shed 700 jobs over the next year, including 320 in Colchester, 230 in Cardiff and 85 in Bolton, but has also announced plans to invest £100m in its general insurance business over the next three years, including £40m in IT systems. 15-May-2002 EBRD, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, is considering plans to relocate its 862 staff to a new headquarters in London. 15-May-2002 Norwich Union Direct is to close its call centre on the Moulton Park industrial estate in Northampton this summer, with the loss of 120 jobs. 10-May-2002 Esure is planning to expand its internet and telephone-based insurance business in Scotland with the creation of 700 jobs over the next five years, having just opened a new office for 200 staff in Glasgow. 10-May-2002 Lehman Brothers of the US is to shed 60 jobs in its European investment banking operations, with London being hardest hit. 06-May-2002 Cazenove is to relocate its London head office from Tokenhouse Yard to Moorgate, in order to combine its 850 banking and investment management staff onto one site. 06-May-2002 Bridgewell is to relocate its equities division to new premises in London's Queen Victoria Street and rebrand the business as Bridgewell Securities. 01-May-2002 Giles Insurance is planning to set up a call centre at the former Fulton & Wyllie factory in Irvine, with the creation of up to 200 jobs. 30-Apr-2002 Coyle Hamilton, the Irish insurance company, is planning to double the size of its Belfast office, which currently has 13 staff, over the next three years. 29-Apr-2002 Lloyd's of London is in talks with the Chinese government about plans to expand its insurance business in China. 29-Apr-2002 The London Stock Exchange is in renewed talks about a merger, and possible partners include Nasdaq, OM Group, the Australian Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 26-Apr-2002 AMP Pearl is to relocate its customer service and IT operations from Cardiff to sites in Peterborough and Tunbridge Wells, which will affect about 300 staff. 26-Apr-2002 Stroud & Swindon Building Society is to close branches in Swindon, London, Berkeley and Yeovil with the loss of up to 50 jobs. 25-Apr-2002 Kiln, the Lloyd's insurance underwriter, is planning to raise £48m in a share placing. 23-Apr-2002 Lazard, the investment bank, is said to be planning to set up a new 130,000 sq ft European headquarters at Mayfair Place in London. 22-Apr-2002 Evolution Group is seeking acquisitions to expand its investment banking and asset management business over the next three months. 22-Apr-2002 Barclays is planning to sell Woolwich's commercial mortgage book for about £900m, and talks are taking place with General Electric and Citigroup. 19-Apr-2002 Co-operative Group is to combine its insurance and banking operations into a new financial services division, in order to cross-sell more services to customers. 19-Apr-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is looking to sell off its Tyndall life insurance and fund management business in Australia and New Zealand. 18-Apr-2002 Andersen is planning to shed up to 1,500 jobs in its UK accountancy business, with the London head office being hit hardest. 17-Apr-2002 Scarborough Building Society is planning to relocate its 300 head office staff to a new 51,000 sq ft site at the Gateway Business Park in Scarborough in September. 17-Apr-2002 TTT Foreign Exchange has won a contract to increase its bureau de change business at Gatwick airport from five to 10 outlets. 17-Apr-2002 Cox Insurance has announced plans to raise £70m in a share placing to fund the restructuring of its business. 15-Apr-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland is to set up a new customer service centre at Horwich near Bolton for the Virgin One all-in-one mortgage account, with the creation of 300 jobs, while 150 jobs will be created at its existing site in Norwich. 12-Apr-2002 Centrica has confirmed plans to set up a call centre for the Goldfish credit card at Atlantic Quay in Glasgow by July, with the creation of 200 jobs. 12-Apr-2002 Lloyds TSB has closed its Create wealth management business, having failed to gain sufficient customers in its first six months of operation. 12-Apr-2002 National Australia Bank is said to be planning to shed 500 back-office jobs at its four UK banks - Clydesdale, Yorkshire, National Irish Bank and Northern Bank - but 300 new customer service jobs will be created. 10-Apr-2002 Citigroup is planning to close its Future Mortgages operation in Reading over the next six months with the loss of up to 75 jobs, in order to transfer the business to Sunderland. 05-Apr-2002 Travelex is to announce a five-year deal to manage the retail currency operations of Rabobank of the Netherlands, and is now looking to secure similar deals with other European banks. 03-Apr-2002 The Association for Payment Clearing Services has selected Northampton to host the UK's first major trial of smartcards, in an attempt to cut credit card fraud in shops. 02-Apr-2002 Proquote, the Cheshire-based internet-broking information service, is planning to raise £5m in a flotation. 02-Apr-2002 Berwin Leighton Paisner, the law firm, is to set up a new 88,000 sq ft headquarters at Lower Thames Street in London. 02-Apr-2002 DTLR, the government department for transport, local government and the regions, is planning to rationalise its network of 1,300 offices and relocate many staff into larger regional hubs over the next 10 years. 02-Apr-2002 Positive Solutions is planning to create more than 200 jobs in its nationwide network of 455 financial advisers over the next year. 29-Mar-2002 Affinitas is planning to raise £1.5m in a share placing to fund the opening of invoice discounting offices in Manchester and Bristol. 26-Mar-2002 Abbey National is planning to open banking outlets in about 20 Homebase DIY stores, with the first test branch opening in Liverpool this week. 25-Mar-2002 Bank of Ireland is planning to set up a factoring and invoice discounting business in the UK and Germany called Enterprise Finance Europe, which will involve opening new offices in Manchester, London and Frankfurt. 22-Mar-2002 Cox Insurance has announced plans to restructure its insurance business, which will involve the loss of 50 jobs and the discontinuation of property and reinsurance underwriting. 22-Mar-2002 Royal London is planning to shed 350 jobs in its life and pensions salesforce, as the provision of traditional doorstep financial advice is no longer seen as cost-effective. 21-Mar-2002 Cornhill is to create 22 jobs at its newly-opened insurance claims centre in Aztec West, Bristol, this year. 20-Mar-2002 Scottish Equity Partners, the Glasgow-based venture capital company, is opening a new office in the City of London, in order to increase the number of deals in England. 19-Mar-2002 Collins Stewart is planning to expand its Quest online stock-picking operation to incorporate US and Asian stocks, as part of the ongoing diversification of its financial services business. 19-Mar-2002 GE Capital Woodchester is planning to relocate its car finance business and up to 300 jobs from Edinburgh to Leeds. 18-Mar-2002 Centrica has won a banking licence for its new Goldfish joint venture with Lloyds TSB, and a Glasgow-based call centre with 200 staff will deal with the customers. 18-Mar-2002 Axa is planning to reduce costs in its UK insurance business by £122m this year, which is expected to involve job losses and cuts in IT and consulting. 18-Mar-2002 Budget Financial Services is to close its Redditch call centre with the loss of up to 86 jobs, but its main site in Peterborough will be expanded. 15-Mar-2002 Morgan Cole, the law firm, is to set up a new 24,000 sq ft office at the Port Tawe development in Swansea, which will involve the relocation of 70 jobs and the creation of 50 jobs by 2005. 14-Mar-2002 The Welsh Development Agency is to relocate 200 staff to a new 35,000 sq ft headquarters at Castle Gate in Cardiff next month. 14-Mar-2002 CGNU is to sell its French general insurance commercial lines operation to Groupama for an undisclosed sum thought to be about £120m. 14-Mar-2002 Churchill Insurance is planning to create up to 200 jobs at its Thornaby call centre on Teesside. 13-Mar-2002 Beeson Gregory is in discussions to acquire Old Mutual Securities, the London-based stockbroking business, for more than £20m. 11-Mar-2002 HSBC is to shed about 40 banking jobs in the Isle of Man, in order to transfer back office work to India. 08-Mar-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland has announced plans to build a new headquarters for up to 3,000 staff at the former Gogarburn hospital site in Edinburgh. 08-Mar-2002 Inter-Alliance is to raise £17m in a share placing to expand the infrastructure and support functions of its financial services business. 08-Mar-2002 Royal & Sun Alliance is to close its French general insurance operation to new business with the loss of 100 jobs over the next few years. 07-Mar-2002 Friends Provident is looking to spend up to £1bn on acquisitions to expand its fund management business. 07-Mar-2002 The Inland Revenue has announced plans to create about 300 jobs at a new call centre in Dudley in September, and has confirmed plans to open other centres in Dundee, Livingston and Peterlee. 06-Mar-2002 Watson Farley & Williams is in merger discussions with Simmons & Simmons to create a combined law firm with 1,000 lawyers. 06-Mar-2002 Britannic is seeking a merger partner to increase its share of the UK insurance market. 06-Mar-2002 The National Assembly for Wales has pledged to relocate 400 jobs from Cardiff to other parts of Wales over the next five years, in order to decentralise its offices. 04-Mar-2002 Scottish Equitable is considering plans to set up a new London head office at the 60,000 sq ft GTS House on Shaftesbury Avenue, in order to consolidate five existing offices. 04-Mar-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland is seeking further acquisitions, and is particularly interested in expanding its US banking operations. 01-Mar-2002 HBOS has announced a £1.1bn share placing to continue the expansion of its retail and life assurance operations. 28-Feb-2002 CGNU is planning to change its name to Aviva to reflect the international nature of its life assurance business. 28-Feb-2002 Provident Financial has closed its South African credit and insurance operations in order to focus on the expansion of its central European business. 28-Feb-2002 TD Waterhouse is about to open new retail stockbroking branches in London and the North. 27-Feb-2002 Abbey National is to acquire a £133m commercial mortgage book from Portman Building Society, as part of a strategy to increase its share of the small business banking market. 27-Feb-2002 Securicor has won a £200m outsourcing contract from Alliance & Leicester, which will involve taking over the management of A&L's cash processing centre in Basingstoke. 25-Feb-2002 HBOS is to set up a new administration complex in Fife for its Intelligent Finance internet and telephone banking business, with the creation of 800 jobs. 22-Feb-2002 The Inland Revenue is planning to create 300 jobs at a new call centre in Livingston in August. 22-Feb-2002 The AA is to create 120 new jobs at its call centre in Newcastle upon Tyne to deal with customers for its new credit card. 21-Feb-2002 Ofex, the small companies share trading market, is planning to open a chain of regional offices this year, including its first move into Scotland. 21-Feb-2002 Bacs is planning to invest £75m modernising its technology over the next five years, due to rising demand for automated payment clearing services. 21-Feb-2002 CGNU is to acquire Dao Heng Assurance and DBS Kwong On Insurance from DBS Group for £31m, in order to expand its insurance operations in Hong Kong. 19-Feb-2002 HSBC is planning to combine its corporate lending and investment banking operations in order to allow more cross-selling of services. 19-Feb-2002 Lloyds TSB has announced plans to shed a further 3,000 staff this year as processing continues to be taken away from branches, but 2,000 jobs will be created to improve customer service levels. 18-Feb-2002 The British Bankers Association is considering plans to merge with the Association of British Insurers to create a single association for the financial services industry. 14-Feb-2002 Hugh James Ford Simey is to demerge the two law practices that were combined in 1999, with the Hugh James operation taking control of the eight offices in South Wales and Ford Simey focusing on the West of England. 13-Feb-2002 Schroders is to restructure its UK fund management business with the loss of about 30 jobs, and a few of its 39 overseas offices will be sold or closed. 13-Feb-2002 Cendant is creating 50 new jobs at its Swindon-based relocation and training business, with vacancies for operations managers, relocation advisers and training consultants. 11-Feb-2002 Prudential is said to be planning to set up a new 38,000 sq ft divisional office at the PaddingtonCentral development in London. 11-Feb-2002 Tenon is to build a new £2m 20,000 sq ft office for its accountancy business in Washington, Tyne & Wear, and staff will relocate from the existing site in Sunderland later this year. 08-Feb-2002 Deutsche Bank has announced proposals to build a 38-storey office block in Islington on the edge of the City of London, as a commercial development by its Deutsche Grundbesitz property division. 08-Feb-2002 The Welsh Development Agency is to seek tenders from both the private and public sectors to take over the running of the Business Connect business advice service in Wales. 06-Feb-2002 Carlisle City Council has approved plans from Capita dbs to build a £6m headquarters for its business services operation at Kingmoor Park, where it will employ 500 staff. 06-Feb-2002 The Child Support Agency is to set up a new data processing facility at Cumnock in Ayrshire with the creation of 170 jobs. 05-Feb-2002 Royal Bank of Scotland is said to be seeking 100,000 sq ft of office space in both Leeds and Bristol, as part of a nationwide strategy to consolidate smaller sites into regional headquarters. 04-Feb-2002 Bank of Ireland is to set up a new £6m flagship branch with 60 staff at the Middleton Building in Belfast city centre in June, and three existing branches will close. 01-Feb-2002 MBNA is planning to set up a new credit card sales and administration office at the Chester Business Park this summer, with the creation of up to 500 jobs. 01-Feb-2002 Abbey National is looking into the possibility of launching a national chain of solicitors if the Law Society votes to deregulate the market in March, while Tesco and Sainsbury are also keen to offer legal services in their stores. 28-Jan-2002 HSBC is planning to close a banking administration centre at Landport in Portsmouth with the loss of 150 jobs. 23-Jan-2002 Morgan Stanley is planning to create up to 450 jobs in Glasgow over the next three years, and will set up a new credit card operation at the Cerium Building in Cadogan Square later this year. 23-Jan-2002 HBOS is to close 60 of its 384 branches in Scotland over the next three years, and the Halifax brand will no longer be used on Scottish high streets. 18-Jan-2002 Bank of Ireland is reorganising its business into five units, including a new UK division comprising Bristol & West, retail operations and a financial advice business. 17-Jan-2002 Zurich Financial Services has invested £90m in the launch of a new internet bank, and the Cheltenham-based operation hopes to attract 300,000 customers over the next five years. 17-Jan-2002 Standard Chartered is to sell its Geneva-based private banking operation to Prudential Financial of the US. 17-Jan-2002 Peninsula Business Services is planning to invest £1.5m in the expansion of its Manchester-based employment law advice business over the next year, with the creation of 70 jobs. 14-Jan-2002 Green Flag is planning to create up to 100 jobs at its insurance call centre in Doncaster, while a further 300 jobs are being created in Leeds and Pudsey. 14-Jan-2002 Ibex Interiors has won a £4.3m contract to fit out a new central London headquarters for US legal firm Sullivan & Cromwell. 14-Jan-2002 Hastings Direct is to create up to 150 new jobs at its insurance call centre in Bexhill. 10-Jan-2002 Credit Suisse First Boston has agreed to sublet 260,000 sq ft of office space at an unfinished building in Canary Wharf, London, to Bank of America. 10-Jan-2002 Churchill Insurance is to create 200 new jobs in Ipswich, in order to expand its claims, sales and customer service departments. 09-Jan-2002 Abbey National is to invest £25m a year in improvements to its current account services, with the creation of 500 new jobs in Sheffield, Bradford and Manchester. 09-Jan-2002 Zurich Financial Services is planning to shed about 180 of its 450 UK-based IT staff by April, which will affect offices in Portsmouth. 02-Jan-2002 The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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