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Royal & Sun Alliance has increased its stake in Royal Caribe, the Venezuelan insurer, from 20% to almost 100% at a cost of about £15m. 24-Dec-1996 General Accident has linked up with Ometraco to form a general insurance company in Indonesia. 20-Dec-1996 Irish Life is acquiring Guarantee Reserve Life Insurance, the Indiana-based assurance company, for £98m. 20-Dec-1996 Flemings, the investment management group, is to start a service on the internet which will enable customers to buy, sell and transfer between 23 equity funds and 5 money market funds. 17-Dec-1996 Raphael Zorn Hemsley is acquiring Insurance Analysis, the Lloyd's adviser, for £1.2m. 17-Dec-1996 The government is planning to expand the Financial Services Act to cover the selling of long-term care insurance, in order to prevent exploitation. 13-Dec-1996 Lloyds TSB is linking up with Video Networks to trial home-banking via television in the Hull area. 11-Dec-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is to start making savings in its insurance division following the acquisition of Legal & General's commercial insurance business, and expects 350 jobs to be cut and 7 offices to be shut. 11-Dec-1996 American Express is to launch an Amex-brand credit card next year in an arrangement with National Westminster Bank. 11-Dec-1996 Barclays is to set up Barclays Ventures, in order to provide in-house venture capital investment management as it aims to provide a complete range of banking and investment services. 11-Dec-1996 Barclays is selling its global custody business to Morgan Stanley for an undisclosed sum, a move which will result in the loss of 400 jobs. 11-Dec-1996 Nationwide building society is to link up with Rochester-upon-Medway city council to form a local housing company for the £21m redevelopment of a site on the river Medway. 09-Dec-1996 The government has announced plans for the introduction of open-ended investment companies, which have features of both investment companies and unit trusts and use a single pricing system. 06-Dec-1996 National Westminster Bank has announced plans to shed a further 10,000 jobs over the next 5 years, through the closure of 200 branches and the centralisation of processing operations. 05-Dec-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland is to join Link next summer, which will mean it becomes the first bank to offer its customers access to all the 21,000 cash machines in operation in the UK. 03-Dec-1996 Halifax Building Society has linked up with Churchill Insurance Company to start offering car insurance. 02-Dec-1996 Standard Chartered has signed a deal with Westpac, the Australian commercial bank, which will give Westpac customers access to its Asian banking network. 28-Nov-1996 Consumer spending with credit and debit cards reached £7.5m in October, up 28% on last year, according to the Credit Card Research Group. 27-Nov-1996 Royal & Sun Alliance is acquiring 60% of Connelly Temple, the Australian pensions business, for about £9m. 27-Nov-1996 Sedgwick is to close River Thames Insurance, its UK underwriting business, in order to concentrate on specialist underwriting and consulting activities. 26-Nov-1996 Abbey National is to set up a Hong Kong-based bank in a joint venture with Hambros Bank and Dah Sing Financial Holdings, and aimed at the "medium-high net worth market". 21-Nov-1996 Guinness Mahon Holdings is to combine its corporate finance and corporate broking businesses into one advisory division. 20-Nov-1996 Mastercard is acquiring a 51% stake in Mondex, the cash-card system being tested in Swindon, from a consortium of banks for £50m. 19-Nov-1996 Barclaycard is to outsource all customer payment processing to Business Support Services, a division of the GUS mail order group, which will set up a new centre in Bolton. 18-Nov-1996 Scottish Widows is to acquire a 20% stake in Royal Scottish Assurance, the Royal Bank of Scotland life assurance subsidiary, and will also become a partner in Direct Line Life, the life assurance business of Direct Line. 15-Nov-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland is to acquire Scottish Equitable's 20% stake in Royal Scottish Assurance, its tied life assurance subsidiary, for undisclosed terms. 14-Nov-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland has terminated an outsourcing contract with EDS, the computer services company, concerning cheque processing. 14-Nov-1996 Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the US investment bank, is planning to set up a new headquarters in London, and expects to double the current 150 staff already employed in the city. 11-Nov-1996 Visa is to test-market its Visa Cash card in Leeds next year, with a launch through Barclays, Abbey National, Halifax, Co-operative Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB. 09-Nov-1996 Mastercard International is to acquire a 51% stake in Mondex International, the UK cash card business, and would then promote the cards in banks that hold its franchise. 08-Nov-1996 Lombard Tricity Finance has acquired the loan portfolio of United Utilities' Norweb retail business for £113m. 05-Nov-1996 Intrum Justitia, the debt collection company, has merged its credit insurance management operation with privately-owned Credit Management Resources. 05-Nov-1996 First National, the Irish building society, is acquiring Cheltenham & Gloucester's £70m branch business in Northern Ireland. 05-Nov-1996 Prudential-Bache International Bank is moving its headquarters from Luxembourg to Devonshire Square in London. 04-Nov-1996 Barclays Bank is to focus its retail custody operations in Peterborough by closing its offices in Trowbridge. 01-Nov-1996 Coutts, National Westminster Bank's private banking operation, has reached an agreement with Board of Executors Private Bank in South Africa in which they will provide services to each other's clients. 31-Oct-1996 Family Assurance is considering plans to supply electricity to its members after deregulation of the electricity supply industry in 1998. 29-Oct-1996 Alliance & Leicester building society is to give savers about £1000 of shares each when it floats on the stock market next year. 28-Oct-1996 Lloyds TSB is planning to auction 108 of its high street banks in November in order to raise £40m to reinvest in core banking activities. 28-Oct-1996 Royal & Sun Alliance has sold its 78% stake in Prosure, the South African insurer, to Mutual & Federal of South Africa, for £98m. 26-Oct-1996 Life Assurance Holding Corp is to acquire the UK life and pensions operation of Combined Life Assurance, the Aon subsidiary, for undisclosed terms. 26-Oct-1996 Primark of the US has bought ICV, the UK supplier of share price data, for £67m, and the company is expected to provide direct competition with Reuters. 25-Oct-1996 National Westminster Bank is launching Advantage Premier, a new fee-paying current account which will offer travel and theatre discounts and low overdraft rates. 24-Oct-1996 Irish Permanent has bought Capital Home Loans, the mortgage book worth over £200m, from Credit Foncier de France, for £12.6m. 24-Oct-1996 Barclays Bank is in discussions to sell its global custody business to Morgan Stanley of the US. 21-Oct-1996 TSB Bank Scotland is setting up 13 new business banking centres to improve its service to smaller companies. 16-Oct-1996 Barclays is merging its traditional fund management business with the recently-acquired BZW Barclays Global Investors operation as part of a move to increase the use of technology in its money management. 16-Oct-1996 Barclays bank has announced plans to use Microsoft's Money 97 personal finance software for its PC banking service, which is due to launch next spring. 14-Oct-1996 Bain Hogg, the insurance broker about to be demerged from Inchcape, has set up a £20m provision to reorganise its activities and to fund the demerger. 11-Oct-1996 Investec of South Africa is in discussions to buy Carr Sheppards, the UK private client stockbroker, from Banque Indosuez of France. 10-Oct-1996 Bradford & Bingley building society is preparing a cost-cutting campaign with unspecified job losses, as it tries to bring its cost base into line with competitors. 10-Oct-1996 Midland Bank is to convert its cheque clearing system from paper to electronic image processing over the next three years in order to cut costs by up to 45%. 07-Oct-1996 Chartwell Re of the US is planning to acquire Archer, the Lloyd's managing agency, a move which follows the trend of consolidation in the insurance sector. 05-Oct-1996 Martin Currie, the fund management company, is acquiring Moorgate Investment Management for about £7m. 04-Oct-1996 Norwich Union plans to raise £2bn in a stock market flotation next year, making it the first UK life assurer to give up mutual ownership. 03-Oct-1996 Thomson Financial Services is to acquire the Sequal electronic trade confirmation service from the London Stock Exchange, which it will eventually merge with its own Oasys Global system. 01-Oct-1996 Britannia building society has bought a £1.1bn mortgage book from Citibank for undisclosed terms. 01-Oct-1996 Standard Chartered, the bank, is merging its corporate and institutional businesses into one division, a move that will result in some cost savings. 28-Sep-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is to provide general insurance to customers of the Northern Rock building society, a service previously provided by Commercial Union. 27-Sep-1996 Prudential, the life insurer, has launched a branchless deposit-taking and mortgage lending operation, as part of a strategy to compete with banks and building societies. 26-Sep-1996 Telephone banking in the UK is growing at a rate of 125,000 new subscribers every month, and is forecast to reach 30% of the population by 2000, according to Datamonitor. 23-Sep-1996 Lloyds TSB has launched a £1.7bn bid to buy the remaining 37% of Lloyds Abbey Life, the life assurer. 21-Sep-1996 Woodchester Investments of Dublin is looking to expand its car finance business into Sweden. 13-Sep-1996 Legal & General is setting up a direct telephone sales centre in Cardiff, which will focus on health and term insurance and employ 100 staff. 13-Sep-1996 Lloyds TSB is to close 150 of its 3,000 bank branches, with most of the staff being redeployed. 13-Sep-1996 British Gas is to launch a credit card called Goldfish, which will enable cardholders to get money off their gas bills. 12-Sep-1996 Midland Bank has transferred the consumer finance division of Forward Trust into First Direct, its telephone bank, a move which could double First Direct's rate of expansion. 12-Sep-1996 Insurance claims for weather damage doubled to £113m in the second quarter, while subsidence claims rose from £30m to £70m and theft claims rose from £178m to £202m, according to the Association of British Insurers. 10-Sep-1996 Brewin Dolphin Bell Lawrie is to launch an online share dealing service for Scotland through its Stocktrade division. 10-Sep-1996 Bank of China is to open a merchant bank in London in order to assist with the increasing level of foreign investment into China. 06-Sep-1996 Royal & Sun Alliance is looking for buyers for its 80% stake in Protea Asssurance of South Africa. 04-Sep-1996 Direct Line is to stop giving telephone advice on life assurance products due to the complexities of discussing the financial situation of customers. 29-Aug-1996 Citibank of the US is planning to build a £200m UK headquarters at Canary Wharf in London, which will employ about 2,500 corporate banking and capital markets staff. 28-Aug-1996 Minet Group, the UK insurance brokerage owned by The St Paul Companies of Minnesota, may now be sold off following the failure of a restructuring operation to make the business profitable. 28-Aug-1996 Banks are expected to soon announce plans to link the UK's 22,000 ATM cash machines, allowing customers to use any machine. 27-Aug-1996 The Alliance & Leicester building society may set up a share dealing service for members who become shareholders at next year's flotation. 26-Aug-1996 Coutts, National Westminster Bank's private banking operation, is considering the acquisition of a private US bank in order to move into the US onshore wealth market. 26-Aug-1996 Prudential Corp is in discussions to sell its Mercantile & General reinsurance subsidiary, with Swiss Reinsurance said to be one of the interested parties. 24-Aug-1996 National Westminster Bank Group is to co-operate with Fleet Financial Group in the supply of banking services in the UK and US, with a new office being set up in Boston, Mass. 21-Aug-1996 Charles Taylor, the insurance management services concern, is planning to join the Stock Exchange with a value of about £30m. 19-Aug-1996 Debit cards were used in over 1bn transactions in 1995, up 25% on 1994, and are expected to reach 2bn by the year 2000, according to the Association for Payment Clearing Services. 17-Aug-1996 Clerical Medical, the life assurance and pensions concern, plans to slash costs at its international division by cutting back in Asia and no longer selling policies in the Americas. 16-Aug-1996 Halifax Building Society is linking up with Churchill Insurance in its first move into motor insurance, and aims to sell policies to 250,000 of its 17m customers. 14-Aug-1996 The Royal Bank of Scotland has set up a new service that allows life assurance companies and other financial services concerns to offer banking facilities without having to apply for their own banking licence. 12-Aug-1996 Card Clear and Cardcast, the credit card fraud prevention companies, are discussing a possible merger, perhaps involving a share offer by Card Clear for Cardcast. 10-Aug-1996 Commercial Union is looking to expand its insurance business into Russia and the Czech Republic in order to rely less on the UK market. 08-Aug-1996 Liberty International is planning to set up a pensions company later this year, focusing on the customer base at its shopping centre company. 08-Aug-1996 Midland Bank is to expand its First Direct telephone banking operation next year to enable it to cope with 10,000 new accounts per month. 06-Aug-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland is buying SG Warburg's share custody division for up to £50m. 02-Aug-1996 Royal & Sun Alliance, the recently-merged insurance group, is planning to close 94 high street offices, with the loss of 1,300 jobs. 01-Aug-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is planning to dispose of its Swiss reinsurance company for £65m. 01-Aug-1996 National Westminster Bank has confirmed that it is still looking to acquire a life assurance company, despite spending £450m on a share buy-back. 31-Jul-1996 Friends Provident, the life assurer, is introducing a deposit account for maturing policy holders in its first move into banking. 30-Jul-1996 Britannia Building Society has suspended 20% of its sales force due to failure to correctly complete information sheets on customers. 26-Jul-1996 The Bank of England is to spend £8m a year on strengthening its banking supervision following the collapse of Barings bank, and will recruit 100 extra people. 25-Jul-1996 Halifax Building Society is to cut 1,200 jobs at its head offices in West Yorkshire following its acquisition of Leeds Permanent, but expects to create 1,200 jobs by expanding into insurance and telephone banking. 24-Jul-1996 Royal & Sun Alliance, formed from the merger of Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance, has made its debut on the stock market, and is now preparing to make cost savings of £175m a year by eliminating duplicated activities. 20-Jul-1996 ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, is closing its corporate banking branch in Birmingham, and transferring accounts to London and Manchester. 19-Jul-1996 Britannic Assurance is planning to introduce serious-illness insurance products in October, following government moves to encourage people to provide for future problems. 18-Jul-1996 BAT Industries is to combine its UK financial services operations, including Eagle Star, Allied Dunbar and Threadneedle, into a new group called British and American Financial Services. 15-Jul-1996 HSBC Holdings, the owner of Midland Bank, is looking to acquire a medium-sized US investment bank, and has already identified about 20 possible targets. 15-Jul-1996 Midland Bank, Abbey National and the Halifax Building Society have announced an alliance to share their automated teller machines, thus giving customers more locations to withdraw cash. 12-Jul-1996 Guardian Insurance is forming a joint venture company with Membership Services Direct, the provider of insurance to affinity groups such as trade unions. 09-Jul-1996 The EBS partnership, the electronic foreign exchange broker owned by 13 foreign exchange banks, has acquired Citicorp Dealing Resources from Citibank for over $150m. 08-Jul-1996 Legal & General is to remove all entry charges on its unit trusts as it aims to increase its share of the unit trust market from under 1% to 5%. 04-Jul-1996 Sedgwick has bought Richard Sparrow, the London-based reinsurance broker. 04-Jul-1996 Cater Allen, the banking and broking concern, is looking to buy a fund management company as it moves further into retail financial services. 29-Jun-1996 The Access credit card is to be replaced by the MasterCard brand, as the four banks which own the Access brand are to sell it to MasterCard for about $40m. 28-Jun-1996 Prudential Corporation is planning to float its Mercantile & General reinsurance business at a value of up to £1.5bn, and concentrate more on life assurance and retail banking. 26-Jun-1996 Visa International is launching a Visa Cash card, which can be loaded with money and used as a cash-alternative in shops, in partnership with Lloyds TSB, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Abbey National, Barclays, and the Halifax. 26-Jun-1996 Willis Corroon plans to sell Consumer Benefit Life Insurance, its US life and health reinsurance operation, to Gerling Global US Investments, for $32m. 25-Jun-1996 Halifax Building Society is said to be negotiating a deal to sell Bupa medical insurance policies through its high street branches. 24-Jun-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland is test marketing a card that can be loaded with cash and then used abroad to withdraw money. 24-Jun-1996 Royal Insurance is selling its one third share in Epic - the Dutch-based European Partners for Insurance Cooperation - for £114m. 22-Jun-1996 Sun Alliance has acquired a 49% stake in the Italian financial products intermediary Investment SIM. 21-Jun-1996 Standard Life has become the latest UK insurer to open an office in China, but it could be a few years before it is allowed to start trading. 19-Jun-1996 Liverpool Victoria is to form its own general insurance underwriting operation. 19-Jun-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange has won approval to restructure its US operations by combining its seven regional companies into a single capital base. 19-Jun-1996 Churchill, the telephone-based motor insurer, is moving into motor repairs by setting up a network of garages to do crash repairs for its 600,000 policyholders. 17-Jun-1996 National Westminster Bank is to sell control of its Spanish retail banking operation to Banco Sabadell. 13-Jun-1996 Woolwich Building Society is said to be planning to launch a telephone-based retail savings product. 13-Jun-1996 Standard Life is to sell most of its 32% stake in the Bank of Scotland in a secondary offering, which means that a single company is unlikely to make a takeover bid. 11-Jun-1996 Hambros is looking to buy an international fund management business and build up its private client banking operation. 06-Jun-1996 St James's Place Capital, the financial holding company, is to concentrate on life insurance and split out its investment portfolio into a new investment trust. 05-Jun-1996 Barclays Bank is to combine its four private banking operations in London to enable it to offer an integrated asset management service aimed at wealthy clients. 04-Jun-1996 The Nationwide building society has agreed a three year deal to take over the sponsorship of the Football League, for £5.25m. 31-May-1996 United Friendly is pulling out of motor insurance, due to increasing competition. 25-May-1996 Visa is expected to launch a plastic card next month, which will rival Mondex as an alternative to cash. 20-May-1996 Virgin is moving further into financial services with the launch of a range of low-cost term insurance and health insurance products. 20-May-1996 Birmingham Midshires Building Society is interested in a merger with the West Bromwich in order to create a "retail financial giant in the West Midlands". 17-May-1996 United Standard Insurance, the London insurance market reinsurer, has had provisional liquidators appointed following losses on claims for North American pollution and asbestos. 16-May-1996 Commercial Union, the composite insurer, is testing telephone sales of life and investment products from a Glasgow office, and it has also announced plans to cut its staff by 5% a year. 16-May-1996 Westdeutsche Landesbank, the German bank, is to expand its UK investment banking subsidiary, West Merchant Bank, which now has about 750 people. 15-May-1996 General Accident is to continue to try to reverse the recent price cuts in UK private motor insurance with last month's 4% rise to be followed by further increases. 15-May-1996 Prudential, the life assurance group, is undergoing a strategic review and is said to be considering the sale or flotation of Mercantile & General, its reinsurance business. 15-May-1996 The Coventry building society is ending its arrangement with Commercial Union, the insurer, and pulling out of selling endowment mortgages. 14-May-1996 Standard Life, the assurance concern, is planning to sell all or part of its 32.2% stake in the Bank of Scotland, but it is expected to go to investors rather than a potential predator. 14-May-1996 Standard Life, the insurer, is looking into the possibility of selling its 32.5% stake in the Bank of Scotland, which is worth over £900m. 13-May-1996 Royal Bank of Scotland plans to apply its Direct Line formula to sales of credit cards and telephone sales of mortgages, as it aims to get 20% of profits from non-banking and insurance activities by the year 2000. 09-May-1996 Churchill Insurance has set up a software development centre in India in order to cut costs. 09-May-1996 Insurance claims for subsidence could rise by up to 50% this year according to the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, due to the recent hot summer and dry winter. 08-May-1996 Barclays is launching a £60 a year current account called Additions, that offers life assurance, free £100 overdraft facilities and discounted medical cover for children, prompting fears that this could be the beginning of the end for free banking. 08-May-1996 Currency Management Corporation of London is planning to launch a real-time foreign exchange service on the internet. 01-May-1996 National Westminster Bank plans to restructure with the creation of "a new retail bank" which will mean the closure of 350 branches by 2000. 01-May-1996 UAP, the French insurance group, is planning to raise £500m by floating a minority stake in its UK holding company, Sun Life and Provincial Holdings. 30-Apr-1996 Lloyds TSB, the newly-merged banking group, is to lose 500 jobs by closing the TSB administration centre in Birmingham, with some staff transferring to the Lloyds centre in Bristol. 26-Apr-1996 Bank of Scotland plans to move into the Asia Pacific region using its expanding business in Australia and New Zealand as a base. 25-Apr-1996 Friends Provident is launching a telephone sales service called Blue Line that will initially sell just a flexible savings plan. 25-Apr-1996 Sligos Payment Services has launched CashStop! Services, a new system which will enable people to easily pay bills, from companies such as BT, British Gas and the BBC, at retail outlets. 24-Apr-1996 Prudential has been revealed as a potential buyer of Friends Provident, the mutual life assurer, along with Sun Alliance and Abbey National. 23-Apr-1996 Yorkshire Bank is to cut 300 jobs at its headquarters in Leeds in order to remain competitive. 20-Apr-1996 Halifax Building Society has bought Banque Paribas' £340m UK residential mortgage business. 20-Apr-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is discussing the acquisition of RAC Insurance's insurance services business, with the intention of combining it with its telephone insurance operation. 19-Apr-1996 Zurich Insurance is setting up new offices in Portsmouth and Leeds, but closing offices in Maidstone, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Southampton, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham and Glasgow, with the net loss of about 100 jobs. 19-Apr-1996 The government is planning to approve electronic cheque clearing, which will mean that cheques no longer need to be returned to the bank on which they were drawn, but this move could cost 30,000 jobs according to Bifu, the banking union. 18-Apr-1996 National Savings bonds and certificates had record sales of £11.7bn last year, with pensioners bonds at a record £2.3bn and premium bonds at a record £1.5bn, according to the government. 13-Apr-1996 Bristol & West building society has closed its share accounts to new investors due to a rush of speculators hoping to benefit from a possible takeover of the society. 12-Apr-1996 Members of the National & Provincial building society have voted to accept its transfer to the Abbey National bank, thus losing its mutual status. 12-Apr-1996 The possibility of a link up between Lloyds TSB and Trust Bank New Zealand has been strengthened by an announcement by Trust Bank that merger discussions have been taking place. 12-Apr-1996 The possible merger of Switzerland's biggest banks - Credit Suisse and Union Bank of Switzerland - would have major implications for the jobs of London-based staff of both banks. 10-Apr-1996 Commercial Union plans to set up a life assurance company in Pakistan next month. 09-Apr-1996 The Post Office is planning to increase the range of banking services offered at its branches, and is in discussions with a number of financial institutions. 09-Apr-1996 Northern Rock is planning to float and convert from a building society into a £1bn bank, while also setting up a charitable foundation in aid of the north east of England. 04-Apr-1996 IKB Deutsche Industriebank is planning a major expansion into the UK to offer long-term loans to medium-sized UK-owned manufacturing companies. 01-Apr-1996 Standard Life is planning to offer deposit accounts later this year by outsourcing the deposit-taking to a bank. 01-Apr-1996 Westdeutsche Landesbank of Germany aims to acquire Quorum, the UK fund management concern, from New York Life Insurance. 30-Mar-1996 Legal & General is to set up a direct sales centre for its financial services products in Cardiff, creating up to 400 jobs. 29-Mar-1996 Lloyds TSB could be about to acquire Trust Bank New Zealand. 29-Mar-1996 Norwich Union has won a deal to provide household insurance products to Barclays Insurance Services. 27-Mar-1996 Halifax Building Society has indicated it may make more acquisitions after it is floated next year, possibly to achieve economies of scale or to move into new areas such as general insurance. 27-Mar-1996 Inchcape's Bain Hogg insurance business is to merge its European activities with the non-French activites of the French broker, Cecar, in which it has a 40% stake. 27-Mar-1996 Lloyds TSB may form a general insurance underwriting operation in order to cut costs and improve revenue. 27-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank plans to cut 1,000 staff in high street branches, largely in London, the south east and north east. 26-Mar-1996 United Bank (UBL), the Pakistani bank with branches in the UK, has been asked by the Bank of England to submit £3.5m from head office, due to concern about whether it has adequate capital. 25-Mar-1996 CE Heath has announced plans to demerge its insurance broking business from its Rebus Group computer services business. 23-Mar-1996 Axa of France could make a UK insurance acquisition in a joint venture with Generali of Italy. 22-Mar-1996 The government is to abandon its opposition to the principle of pensions being split at divorce. 22-Mar-1996 Sun Alliance is discussing the possible acquisition of Friends Provident, the mutual life assurer. 22-Mar-1996 TR Pacific has launched a £150m bid for Thornton Asian Emerging Markets Investment Trust. 22-Mar-1996 Britannic Assurance is to rationalise by cutting back its sales force, closing some branches, withdrawing from motor insurance and moving into health insurance. 21-Mar-1996 Singer & Friedlander, the independent merchant bank, plans to move into markets vacated by the big investment banks by making acquisitions. 20-Mar-1996 Nelson Hurst, the insurance broker, plans to make further acquisitions and expand in South America. 20-Mar-1996 Alliance & Leicester, the building society, is planning a total review of costs in preparation for flotation and transformation into a bank. 19-Mar-1996 Abbey National is considering the formation of an in-house telephone-based stockbroking operation, and it may use it to benefit from the windfall profits that National & Provincial customers will get when the Abbey National takeover goes through. 18-Mar-1996 First National Building Society of Ireland is to introduce a direct telephone operation in the UK. 18-Mar-1996 The Monopolies and Mergers Commission is to investigate the way Scottish solicitors provide estate agency services, as they are said to exclude non-solicitor estate agents from property centres. 16-Mar-1996 The London Stock Exchange may soon give the go-ahead for a new range of tax-efficient property investment vehicles, which would allow property unit trusts to be traded on the exchange. 15-Mar-1996 Tradepoint Financial Networks plans to raise £8.5m with a listing on the Alternative Investment Market, and it believes it needs to take 2% of London's share trading volume in order to break even. 15-Mar-1996 Legal & General plans to expand its banking services, but is not considering retail banking. 15-Mar-1996 The government has decided against increasing tax rebates for life insurers to contribute to the cost of selling personal pensions. 14-Mar-1996 Schroders, the investment bank, is planning a business efficiency review partly due to a rapid rise in information technology spending. 14-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank is to shed a further 500 jobs from its regional offices. 13-Mar-1996 Credit card fraud fell 14% to £83m last year according to the Association for Payment Clearing Services, but banks will continue with plans to reduce it further by launching cards with electronic chips, probably in late 1997. 13-Mar-1996 Prudential is looking to re-enter the Indian insurance market and hopes to get a government licence to start a joint venture within two years. 13-Mar-1996 The government is to announce measures to give building societies more power, and at the same time allow them to be taken over by financial institutions from elsewhere in Europe. 11-Mar-1996 Citibank of the US will soon announce the location for its new London headquarters, from a shortlist of Canary Wharf, the Baltic Exchange and London Bridge City. 11-Mar-1996 Independent advisors have seen their market share for life assurance sales increase since agents have been required to tell customers their costs and commissions, according to the Association of British Insurers. 09-Mar-1996 Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Abbey National and the Royal Bank of Scotland are considering the launch of a stored-value smart card to rival Mondex. 08-Mar-1996 Sun Alliance has announced a reorganisation with 1,000 job losses, as well as plans to sell its Chancellors estate agency chain to management. 08-Mar-1996 Foreign & Colonial is discussing the possible acquisition of ESN Pension Management Group. 08-Mar-1996 BAT is to review its financial services business in order to improve income and cut costs by streamlining Eagle Star, Allied Dunbar and Threadneedle Asset Management. 07-Mar-1996 Birmingham Midshires building society is looking for partners to enable it to launch a credit card and a current account next year. 07-Mar-1996 The life assurance sector will see continued cutbacks and job losses this year as companies cut charges to increase market share, according to a review of the sector by Standard & Poor. 06-Mar-1996 Skandia of Sweden has become the first European insurer to link its offices with the electronic networks of the London international insurance market, following a relaxation of the rules to enhance London's status as an insurance centre. 05-Mar-1996 Close Brothers plans to double the size of its corporate finance operation, and is also looking to grow in asset management possibly by acquisition. 05-Mar-1996 Cardcast, which has created a data broadcast system to provide information on lost and stolen credit cards, plans to raise £1.7m by joining the Alternative Investment Market. 05-Mar-1996 Alliance & Leicester Building Society is to stop selling endowment policies following the formation of its own life assurance company. 05-Mar-1996 The government is considering a move to make insurance companies reimburse it for state benefits paid to victims of accidents while they are not working. 04-Mar-1996 First Direct is considering a move into electronic banking through home computers, and is separately looking into offering extended warranties on electrical items in competition with retailers. 04-Mar-1996 Lloyds Bank is shutting its treasury activities in New York and transferring the foreign exchange business to London. 01-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank is to launch a 24 hour telephone advice service for people filling in the new self-assessment tax forms, and will also offer a service filling in the forms. 29-Feb-1996 Insurance industry losses from domestic subsidence claims increased from £125m to £326m in 1995, while claims for domestic theft fell 10% to £567m and claims for commercial insurance were unchanged at £205m. 29-Feb-1996 Celtic Football Club is to launch a personal equity plan, administered by Caledonia Investments with much of the commission going to Celtic. 29-Feb-1996 General Accident is raising motor insurance premiums by an average 4% from April, and says it is looking for a significant acquisition in Germany or France. 28-Feb-1996 Barclays Bank has bought back 40m of its shares for £306m in order to help it manage its capital, following a 12% profit increase. 28-Feb-1996 Abbey National has identified 100 National & Provincial branches to close if its takeover goes through, and claims it would achieve cost savings of £50m. 27-Feb-1996 Unit trust sales increased in January, with the amount invested by private investors up £477m. 27-Feb-1996 HSBC Holdings has denied it is looking to expand its UK and US banking activities through acquisition, but it is considering acquisitions in fund management. 27-Feb-1996 Employees at the Midland and Yorkshire banks are being balloted by the Banking Insurance & Finance Union over whether they will stage walkouts over disputes about pay and jobs. 26-Feb-1996 AA Insurance is to set up its own direct underwriting operation and hopes it will lead to discounts of up to 10% for customers moving away from other telephone insurers. 24-Feb-1996 The Shetland Islands council has awarded PDFM the contract to manage a £63m pension fund, which up to now has been managed by Rothschild Asset Management. 24-Feb-1996 The Nationwide building society is cutting its mortgage rate by 0.45% to 6.99% in April and increasing interest rates on savings accounts by 0.25% in March, in what is seen as a challenge to their competitors which have opted to become banks. 23-Feb-1996 Woolwich Building Society plans to close 25 branches and 30 estate agency offices this year, which will leave it with 425 branches and 150 offices. 23-Feb-1996 Sedgwick is discussing the possible acquisition of Oakwood to expand its Lloyd's members agency operations. 23-Feb-1996 London saw 35 new offices opened by foreign banks in 1995, and there are now a record 541 foreign banks with representation there, according to Noel Alexander the management consultancy. 23-Feb-1996 Halifax Building Society is to close 120 high street branches, leaving it with just under 1000, following its merger with Leeds Permanent. 22-Feb-1996 The Lloyds TSB Group has said it would consider purchasing another building society in order to improve productivity and increase competitiveness. 22-Feb-1996 Commercial Union, the composite insurer, says it is looking to expand internationally by organic growth and new ventures especially in Asia, the US and eastern Europe, but it is not looking for UK acquisitions. 22-Feb-1996 Guardian Royal Exchange is looking for acquisitions in the life insurance markets in the UK and Germany, as well as the general sector in the US. 21-Feb-1996 Sedgwick has forecast a period of consolidation for international insurance brokers, saying the market is only suited for three or four major players compared to the current six. 21-Feb-1996 Dresdner Bank and its subsidiary, Kleinwort Benson, are planning to jointly run offices in New York and Tokyo in a move that is seen as a further step to integration. 21-Feb-1996 National Westminster Bank is looking to acquire companies involved in long-term savings and investments as well as insurance, and is rumoured to be interested in Clerical Medical, the life assurer. 20-Feb-1996 Sales of life and pension policies rose in the last quarter of 1995, with sales of regular yearly premium policies up 6.6% on the previous quarter to £549m, according to the Association of British Insurers. 20-Feb-1996 Salomon Brothers of the US is to approach lenders who may be interested in buying The Mortgage Corporation, its UK mortgage business which has a portfolio of about £1.3bn. 19-Feb-1996 Direct Line is moving into the investment market with the launch of a Pep, and its telephone-based approach is likely to increase pressure on margins in the market. 17-Feb-1996 Barclays is selling its 40 Cyprus branches to the Hellenic Bank for £11.6m. 17-Feb-1996 Lloyds Abbey Life is looking to buy a mutual insurance company to improve its product range. 15-Feb-1996 Sun Alliance is to lose a significant part of its income as its US partner, Chubb Corporation, is pulling out of an agreement in which Sun has been getting 14% of Chubb's US premium income in return for 7.5% of its worldwide non-life turnover. 14-Feb-1996 Scottish Life has created an international life group and fund management operation based in Edinburgh. 07-Feb-1996 Oriel, the insurance concern, is in discussions with a possible purchaser, thought to be Aon of the US. 07-Feb-1996 Clerical Medical, the mutual life assurance concern, is said to be looking for a bidder and values itself at up to £1bn. 05-Feb-1996 The Bank of Scotland is to sell Dunedin Fund Managers, the investment management company which has suffered from staff defections, and Kleinwort Benson is assisting in the search for a buyer. 03-Feb-1996 Flemings is launching the Oasis fund, a fund for Islamic investors which will be registered in Luxembourg. 03-Feb-1996 Singer & Friedlander is moving its corporate finance staff from Bristol, Birmingham and Nottingham to London, following greater competition in the supply of finance to regional companies. 02-Feb-1996 ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, is to build a headquarters for its investment banking operation at Spitalfields, which is seen as a boost to those trying to stop financial services companies moving away from the City of London to Canary Wharf. 01-Feb-1996 Alliance & Leicester has announced flotation plans and aims to become a bank early in 1997. 01-Feb-1996 Halifax Building Society plans to form an insurance service company with household policies being underwritten by Royal Insurance, thus ending its 100-year relationship with Sun Alliance. 01-Feb-1996 Birmingham Midshires has decided against forming its own financial services operation and is instead renegotiating with Sun Life. 31-Jan-1996 The government has plans to merge the major financial services regulatory bodies into the Securities and Investments Board after the next election. 30-Jan-1996 The Royal Bank of Scotland's telephone insurance business Direct Line is moving into the retail savings business with the launch of an instant access deposit account. 30-Jan-1996 Britannic Assurance is withdrawing from the car insurance market, blaming price competition from telephone-based insurers. 30-Jan-1996 NatWest Ventures is setting up a Milan office to provide equity to private business. 30-Jan-1996 HSBC Holdings is to merge its European investment banking activities, currently run separately by James Capel and Samuel Montagu, under the name of HSBC Investment Banking. 30-Jan-1996 High street spending using debit cards rose 25% to £21bn in 1995, thus overtaking credit cards, according to the Credit Card Research Group. 29-Jan-1996 TransAtlantic Holdings is acquiring a 70% stake in Portfolio Fund Management, in a return to the UK savings market by its controlling-company Liberty Life Association of Africa. 29-Jan-1996 National Savings has reduced its rates on its accounts, bonds and certificates, while reducing the Premium Bond prize fund return. 26-Jan-1996 Building societies are expected to be hit by a margin war in 1996, and 1995 may be the last year of consistent profit growth, according to stockbrokers UBS. 26-Jan-1996 Barclays may pull out of share registration and transfer its business to Lloyds Bank Registrars and Independent Registrars Group. 26-Jan-1996 National Westminster Bank's Lombard division is buying 15% of Credit General Industriel, the French car finance business. 26-Jan-1996 Bradford & Bingley Building Society has announced a 0.25% cut in its mortgage rate, which could cause a price war. 25-Jan-1996 Woolwich Building Society has bought Midland Bank's residential mortgage book in France. 24-Jan-1996 Yorkshire Bank staff are trying to improve their pay offer by voting for an overtime ban on certain days in February. 24-Jan-1996 Ace, the insurer based in Bermuda, is buying 51% of Methuen, the Lloyd's of London managing agency. 23-Jan-1996 Of the top 100 life assurance companies in the UK, only half will still be going in 2005 according to Datamonitor research. 22-Jan-1996 Sales of life insurance started to pick up again in the second half of 1995, according to sales figures from Scottish Widows, Legal & General, Britannic Assurance and Lloyds Abbey Life. 19-Jan-1996 Fidelity Brokerage of the US is negotiating to buy Hambros' futures, options and bond clearing activities. 16-Jan-1996 Midland Bank has bought Commercial Union's remaining 20% stake in Midland Life, the life assurance subsidiary. 13-Jan-1996 Woolwich Building Society has confirmed that it will become a bank, thus giving up its mutual status. 12-Jan-1996 The private client stockbroking activities of Commercial Union and Credit Commercial de France are being merged to form Quilter & Co. 12-Jan-1996 Aon of the US has bought AA Commercial Insurance Brokers' insurance portfolio. 11-Jan-1996 The Prudential has outsourced its global custody of securities to Midland Bank and Mellon Bank of the US. 10-Jan-1996 Legal & General has launched Lifetime Healthcare, its first medical insurance plan, with an investment of £10m. 10-Jan-1996 Fifty percent of people would be happy to buy financial services over the telephone according to findings by Prospektus. 09-Jan-1996 Demachy Worms of France and Union have jointly formed the Matrix Fund, a portfolio of money market funds to help small companies with their international money management. 09-Jan-1996 The government is expected to soon change legislation over the clearing of cheques, which should quicken the process. 05-Jan-1996 Barclays Bank is introducing BarclayZone, an electronic stock dealing and information service which includes a video link between its Glasgow office and the customer. 04-Jan-1996 Nationwide has now opened its life assurance and unit trust operations in an attempt to rely less on services related to mortgages. 02-Jan-1996
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