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The Financial Services Authority's new headquarters at Canary Wharf is taking on staff from the Building Societies Commission, the Treasury's insurance directorate, the Friendly Societies Commission, and the Registry of Friendly Societies. 31-Dec-1998 Bradford & Bingley is facing a new campaign to try to convert it from a building society into a bank. 31-Dec-1998 Cameron McKenna, the London law firm, is discussing the formation of alliances with companies in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany and France. 29-Dec-1998 Hambro Countrywide Coveyancing is buying leasehold conveyancing offices in Brentwood and Woking from EDC Lord. 29-Dec-1998 The London Stock Exchange is considering plans for the redevelopment of its City headquarters, which could involve selling the building and relocating to smaller premises. 28-Dec-1998 Liffe, the London futures and derivatives exchange, has suspended two firms - GLH (Derivatives) of Colchester and Griffin Trading of the US - due to concerns over their ability to settle contracts. 26-Dec-1998 Chubb of the US is acquiring a 27% stake in Hiscox for £88m, which will be its first involvement in the Lloyd's insurance market. 23-Dec-1998 Bank of Ireland has opened a new business banking centre in Bristol, in order to serve the south west. 21-Dec-1998 Siemens Business Services has won a £1bn contract from the government to run back-office operations and deal with customers of the National Savings bank, which will result in 3,800 civil servants being transferred to the private sector. 18-Dec-1998 Bradford & Bingley is planning to expand its independent financial advice business by switching sales agents to independent status and by launching the service in all 600 high-street outlets. 18-Dec-1998 Standard Life Bank is moving into the mortgage market in January with a new product called Freestyle. 17-Dec-1998 Lombard North Central is selling its 50% stake in John Deere Credit, the agricultural machinery finance operation, to its joint venture partner John Deere Capital for undisclosed terms. 17-Dec-1998 Prudential's PPM Ventures division has acquired a 79% stake in Orefi, the French industrial parts distributor, in a £75m deal. 17-Dec-1998 Card Protection Plan, the global credit card insurer, is to set up a £10m call centre in York, with the creation of 750 jobs. 17-Dec-1998 The government is planning to abolish the state earnings related pension scheme in order to encourage more people to take up "stakeholder" private pensions. 16-Dec-1998 Prudential is to resume selective recruitment of sales staff, following an 18-month suspension that has resulted in numbers falling from 5,000 to about 3,000. 16-Dec-1998 Rutland Trust is to transform itself into an investment trust to enable it to carry out more company turnround deals, and it is also planning to raise a further £200m of private equity. 15-Dec-1998 Hermes is planning to merge its US fund management operations with those of US-based Lens, and Hermes' parent BT Pension Fund will invest £60m in the venture. 14-Dec-1998 Reeds Rains, the independent estate agent, has acquired Britannia Building Society's eight estate agency branches in the Staffordshire area. 14-Dec-1998 Birmingham Midshires' members have approved plans for the building society to be acquired by Halifax. 12-Dec-1998 American Express is moving into the retail investment market in the UK, France, Germany, and Italy, and plans to launch individual savings accounts, mortgages and personal loans. 11-Dec-1998 Standard Chartered has been selected as preferred bidder for the global trade finance operation of UBS of Switzerland, which is thought to be worth about £440m. 11-Dec-1998 Baillie Gifford is forming an alliance with the German insurance company Mannheimer, in which it will provide advice on equity investments. 11-Dec-1998 Thomas Cook, the travel and financial services company, is planning to outsource its recently-opened call centre in Peterborough. 10-Dec-1998 Brewin Dolphin is to expand its stockbroking business in Scotland by opening an office in Inverness. 09-Dec-1998 Fisher International has acquired Railway Claims, the Derby-based company that specialises in defending claims against the rail industry, for undisclosed terms. 09-Dec-1998 Rolls-Royce is to merge its Aircraft Finance & Trading business with Pembroke Capital of Ireland, and expects the deal to result in its engines being used on aircraft leased to airlines by Pembroke. 09-Dec-1998 Standard Chartered is in discussions to sell its Asian motor vehicle financing business. 09-Dec-1998 The government is planning to halve the time it takes to sell a house, and the house seller will have to produce an information pack that includes a survey of the building. 08-Dec-1998 The shortlist of bidders for NPI, the mutual insurer, has been narrowed down to four companies - CGU, Britannic, AMP of Australia and Swiss Life - and a decision is expected before the end of the year. 05-Dec-1998 CSL is to create more than 200 jobs in Reading, having won a contract to review pensions for Windsor Life. 04-Dec-1998 Lloyds TSB is working with local organisations to set up a community bank in a deprived area of Portsmouth, which could be the first of a network designed to bring mainstream financial services to inner city locations. 04-Dec-1998 Halifax has announced an internal reorganisation to bring all its distribution channels under one management structure, but has denied it would consider merging with a clearing bank. 04-Dec-1998 Standard Chartered Bank is bidding to acquire 75% of the Misr America International Bank in Egypt, in a $100m deal. 04-Dec-1998 Halifax is acquiring a 50% stake in contract hire company Lex Vehicle Leasing in a £162m deal, and plans to benefit from the growing demand for personal leasing contracts from people aiming to avoid the taxes on company cars. 04-Dec-1998 Palser Grossman, the Cardiff-based firm of solicitors, has acquired CA Norris, the Southampton-based insurance litigation specialist. 03-Dec-1998 State Street, the US-owned bank and trust company, is planning to double the size of its Edinburgh operation over the next few years, creating about 80 jobs. 03-Dec-1998 Deutsche Bank is to acquire Bankers Trust of the US for $10bn, which could result in the loss of about 3,000 jobs in London, particularly at BT Alex Brown. 01-Dec-1998 The NHS is gaining new powers to recover the costs of treating road traffic accidents, which is expected to result in an increase in motor insurance premiums by up to 3%. 28-Nov-1998 Cattles has dropped plans to sell its corporate lending and factoring business as it was not offered a sufficiently high price. 28-Nov-1998 HSBC is planning a £30m global rebranding programme that will result in the Midland name being removed from its UK banks and replaced with the HSBC initials. 28-Nov-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is to close its customer service centres in Brighton and Horsham next year with the loss of 290 jobs. 27-Nov-1998 MBNA Bank is said to be planning to expand its site in Chester with the creation of 400 more jobs. 26-Nov-1998 Deloitte & Touche is opening a corporate finance office in Aberdeen in order to secure more oil and gas transactions. 26-Nov-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland is to set up an Acquisition Finance Unit in Paris, as part a strategy to increase its presence in European markets. 25-Nov-1998 Salomon Smith Barney is considering plans to move all of its London operations to a new building at Canary Wharf, in order to integrate with the corporate banking business of its parent Citibank. 25-Nov-1998 The Securities and Futures Authority has ordered the stockbroker Seligmann Harris to cease trading, after one of its clients failed to meet its obligations. 25-Nov-1998 Guardian Royal Exchange is in talks with a number of companies which could lead to a £3bn takeover. 23-Nov-1998 Flemings is forming a joint venture with Danish-owned Aros Securities to expand its corporate finance and securities business in Scandinavia. 21-Nov-1998 Criterion Assurance is to recruit 20 new staff in Petersfield due to growth in its business supplying tailor-made schemes to financial services companies. 19-Nov-1998 Culver Holdings is to acquire Mount Stuart Group, the Cardiff-based insurance broker, for £0.2m. 18-Nov-1998 HSBC Midland, the treasury and capital markets division of HSBC, is cutting 60 jobs in London due to market conditions. 18-Nov-1998 Standard Chartered Bank is to set up a dedicated sales force at its 99 branches in Hong Kong and Singapore to sell general insurance policies on behalf of CGU. 17-Nov-1998 Beeson Gregory, the stockbroker and finance house, is considering a number of takeover approaches that are thought to have come from continental Europe. 17-Nov-1998 Garbutt & Elliott, the chartered accountancy with 120 staff, has moved into larger premises in Leeds to enable it to continue to grow its West Yorkshire business. 16-Nov-1998 Legal & General has confirmed plans to spend £10m expanding its insurance call centre in Cardiff, creating 1,000 extra jobs. 14-Nov-1998 Independent Insurance, the composite insurer, has abandoned plans to move into the life insurance and pensions market. 14-Nov-1998 Swiss Life, Britannic and AMP of Australia are said to have been shortlisted to acquire NPI, the mutual life assurer that has put itself up for sale. 14-Nov-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance has abandoned plans to merge its Royal Life and Sun Alliance life funds, but denies that the decision was prompted by policyholders claiming the move would be unfair. 14-Nov-1998 Scottish Equitable is to spin off its fund management division in order to help it compete with established London-based rivals. 14-Nov-1998 Guardian Royal Exchange has announced plans to expand its long-term healthcare operations and relaunch its UK life assurance business. 13-Nov-1998 Ulster Bank is planning to create an additional 100 jobs in Northern Ireland, and is also looking to streamline its processing systems in conjunction with its parent group NatWest. 12-Nov-1998 Abbey National is planning to move out of its headquarters in Baker Street, London, and is said to be in discussions with British Land about building a £100m replacement on the Euston Road. 12-Nov-1998 Standard Life is creating a separate fund management company called Standard Life Investments, and is aiming to raise funds under management from £60bn to £100bn within five years. 11-Nov-1998 CGU is said to reviewing the options for its 28% stake in Hibernian, the Irish insurance company, which could involve selling the stake or buying the rest of the company. 09-Nov-1998 Legal & General is said to be planning to set up a new call centre in Cardiff. 07-Nov-1998 NatWest Bank has begun a trial of a £5-a-month information service called Zenda, providing travel timetables, weather reports, traffic problems, news, entertainment, car-buying and finance. 06-Nov-1998 Credit Suisse First Boston is said to have made 50 staff redundant in London, mainly in its fixed income department. 06-Nov-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is to make an unspecified number of jobs cuts, and its UK general insurance operation is expected to be hardest hit. 06-Nov-1998 Eastgate, the provider of services to the insurance industry, has opened a new call centre in Thurmaston, Leicestershire, and will recruit up to 100 staff. 05-Nov-1998 Mondex International has linked up with Alcatel and Gemplus of France to develop the world's first mobile phone cash machine, enabling people to transfer funds onto cash cards via their phones. 05-Nov-1998 Barclays Capital is cutting a further 200 jobs and has announced plans to withdraw from proprietary trading and most trading in emerging markets securities. 05-Nov-1998 Capital Bank is creating 50 jobs at its financial services telesales operation in Chester. 03-Nov-1998 The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange is to cut 600 jobs in order to improve competitiveness, and is expected to form alliances with other exchanges over the coming weeks. 03-Nov-1998 BKR Haines Watts is to set up an accountancy office in Derby and expects to create up to 30 jobs over the next five years. 02-Nov-1998 Great Universal Stores is looking to sell its finance division for up to £1.2bn, in order to focus on catalogue retailing and information services. 02-Nov-1998 Merrill Lynch of the US is planning to cut 400 jobs in London, mainly in its emerging markets and fixed income divisions, as part of a worldwide cost-cutting drive. 31-Oct-1998 Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts, the US buy-out house, is to set up a new office in London in order to expand its European operations. 30-Oct-1998 Lloyds Bank has launched an on-line banking service via the internet. 29-Oct-1998 HSBC Holdings has announced plans for the construction of a 41-storey headquarters at Canary Wharf in London. 29-Oct-1998 Westdeutsche Landesbank Gironzentrale is to set up an 11-storey banking headquarters in the City of London, and Balfour Beatty has won the £69m construction contract from developer MEPC. 29-Oct-1998 ANZ Investment Bank is to shed up to 70 jobs in London, close its emerging market debt sales operation, and move the investment banking headquarters to Australia. 29-Oct-1998 Irish Life is planning to acquire Woodchester Investment Brokers, the Dublin-based insurance distributor, and is also in talks to merge with Irish Permanent. 29-Oct-1998 Lloyds Development Capital has opened an office in Nottingham in order to provide venture capital funds to companies in the East Midlands. 28-Oct-1998 The Bank of Wales has opened a new corporate banking office in Newport to improve the service offered to clients in Gwent. 28-Oct-1998 Equitable Life is to set up a service that will allow customers to track their insurance policies via the internet. 26-Oct-1998 Scottish Equitable is planning to create a further 150 jobs at its insurance headquarters in Edinburgh. 26-Oct-1998 Daiwa, the Japanese bank, is planning to withdraw from all overseas business, which will include the closure of branches in London and other cities, in order to avoid requirements on international capital adequacy standards. 26-Oct-1998 Barclays is to build a £11m administration processing centre in Leicester, creating almost 850 jobs. 23-Oct-1998 State Street, the US bank, is looking to move its institutional investment division from King Street to St James's Square, London. 23-Oct-1998 CGU, the insurance group, is to close seven branches in Stevenage, Southend, Taunton, Hull, Banbury, Bournemouth, and Torquay. 23-Oct-1998 Spinnaker International of Plymouth has combined with NCR of the US to develop a new product to protect money in cashpoint machines, and Spinnaker will be recruiting a further 100 workers over the next year. 22-Oct-1998 Tottenham Hotspur football club is to launch a new range of financial services for its supporters, including insurance, credit card and a building society deposit scheme. 22-Oct-1998 N Brown, the mail order company, is planning to offer individual savings accounts to its customers next year, and is in talks with financial service providers about developing a suitable product. 22-Oct-1998 Barclays, Lloyds Bank and Midland Bank are preparing to join the Link network of cash machines, which will mean that customers of almost every UK bank will be able to use any of the country's 25,000 machines. 21-Oct-1998 Greig Middleton, the stockbroker, is to move away from research-driven sales in large companies in order to focus on smaller companies, and 18 jobs will be lost as a result. 20-Oct-1998 Prudential is recruiting an additional 250 people at its call centre in Derby to cope with demand for its new Egg banking service. 20-Oct-1998 Abbey National Financial Products is setting up an equity derivatives desk. 17-Oct-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland has acquired the remaining 40% of Privilege, the motor insurer, for more than £15m. 17-Oct-1998 BT Alex Brown has closed its emerging European equities desk in London with the loss of about 12 jobs. 16-Oct-1998 DAS, the legal expenses insurer, is to expand its motor claims centre in Bedwas, near Caerphilly, with the creation of about 50 new jobs. 16-Oct-1998 Daiwa Securities of Japan is considering plans to sell Daiwa Europe Bank, its UK-based banking operation. 15-Oct-1998 Guardian Royal Exchange has announced a reorganisation that will result in the combination of all its healthcare operations under the PPP Healthcare name, the closure of offices in Eastbourne and Folkestone, and the loss of 300 jobs. 15-Oct-1998 Britannia Building Society has announced compulsory redundancies for 36 employees in Leek, as part of recently-announced plans to cut 200 jobs at its Moorlands headquarters. 15-Oct-1998 Merrill Lynch, the US investment bank, is to cut 3,400 jobs worldwide, including some in the UK, following a fall in profits. 14-Oct-1998 Hiscox is to open its first regional insurance office in Harrogate, in order to develop business opportunities in the north of England. 13-Oct-1998 Garban, the money and securities broker, has opened an office in Poland. 12-Oct-1998 Aberdeen Asset Management is moving about 70 of its 130-strong Aberdeen-based workforce into new premises in Johnstone House, due to ongoing expansion. 12-Oct-1998 Peel, Hunt and Co, the corporate stockbroker, has closed its Leeds office. 08-Oct-1998 Axa Direct, the home and motor insurance company, is to set up a customer service centre in Liverpool with the creation of 300 jobs. 07-Oct-1998 Prudential is launching a direct banking operation called Egg, which will operate via the telephone, the internet and the post, and include mortgages, savings accounts and personal loans. 06-Oct-1998 Cornhill Insurance is to set up a new dedicated processing centre in Leeds, creating 15 jobs. 06-Oct-1998 Churchill Insurance is to open a call centre in Stockton, Teesside, with the creation of 250 jobs. 06-Oct-1998 Garban is launching a new electronic equity broking service which is said to reduce dealing costs by up to 85%. 05-Oct-1998 Flemings is forming an alliance with Evercore Partners of the US to offer joint advice to clients on cross-border mergers and acquisitions. 05-Oct-1998 NPI, the mutual life assurer, has put itself up for sale and discussions have already started with about five potential acquirers. 03-Oct-1998 Tesco Personal Finance and Sainsbury's Bank are both considering plans to launch Individual Savings Accounts. 03-Oct-1998 ING Barings is to cut 1,200 jobs worldwide, including a small number in London, following a strategic review of its corporate and investment banking business. 02-Oct-1998 Robert Fleming Securities is to cut 50 jobs in London from its non-Asian emerging markets operations. 01-Oct-1998 The Credit Protection Association is to set up a regional office in Newmarket with the creation of 15 jobs. 01-Oct-1998 Prudential is closing two of its branches in Billingham and Darlington and the business will be transferred to branches in York and Gateshead. 01-Oct-1998 United Assurance is to undergo a review of its activities due to concern over the economics of collecting cash at customers' doors. 30-Sep-1998 WorldPay is setting up an office in Cambridge to process payments made over the Internet on behalf of other companies, and is creating about 40 jobs. 30-Sep-1998 Daiwa Europe is expected to cut up to 400 jobs at its London office due to economic problems in Japan and Russia, and it has cancelled its planned move to new offices in Wood Street. 28-Sep-1998 Mediocredito Centrale of Italy is planning to open an investment banking branch in London. 28-Sep-1998 Prudential, the life assurer, is reorganising its salesforce with the loss of about 300 jobs and a new pay structure that will reduce the emphasis on commissions and increase the basic salary. 28-Sep-1998 CGU is to merge its life insurance businesses into a single marketing unit and introduce 32 products under the CGU Life brand to replace the ranges previously offered by CU and General Accident. 28-Sep-1998 Deloitte & Touche is to set up a consultancy to offer independent advice on raising capital, as it believes that such advice has become difficult to get from investment banks. 28-Sep-1998 Scottish Mutual Assurance is to set up a new office complex in Milton Keynes. 24-Sep-1998 Sun Life & Provincial is considering plans to launch a savings account in order to broaden its product range. 24-Sep-1998 National Mutual Life Assurance is to outsource the management of its £2bn in equity funds, and expects other pension specialists to do the same. 24-Sep-1998 Barclaycard is to cut 1,100 jobs at offices in Northampton, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Teesside, in order to cut costs in response to falling market share. 23-Sep-1998 Alliance & Leicester is linking up with London Electricity to offer a mortgage that will give housebuyers in London free gas and electricity for up to three years. 22-Sep-1998 Leeds United football club is to offer a wide range of financial services to its supporters through a link-up with Allied Dunbar and Skipton Building Society. 22-Sep-1998 Bradford & Bingley building society is to outsource its computer functions to IBM in a 10-year deal worth at least £100m. 22-Sep-1998 Save & Prosper, the fund management company, is to focus on selling direct to the public instead of through independent financial advisers. 21-Sep-1998 Prudential, the insurance company, is considering plans to move from its offices in central Reading to its Green Park campus outside the town. 18-Sep-1998 Lloyd's of London is to shed 300 of the 1,000 jobs in its London and Chatham-based insurance services operation, in order to cut costs by £10m. 18-Sep-1998 Bank One International of the US is to start marketing credit cards in the UK from new offices in Cardiff Bay, creating 100 jobs initially and up to 1,000 in five years. 18-Sep-1998 Britannic Assurance is to adopt a holding company structure in order to assist acquisition plans, and has also announced that it will invest £70m on computer equipment to improve efficiency. 17-Sep-1998 Co-operative Bank is examining the possibility of using smart cards to enable customers of its sister Co-op supermarkets to deposit money into Independent Savings Accounts. 16-Sep-1998 Old Mutual, the South African assurer, is planning to move its primary stock exchange listing from Johannesburg to London in order to make it easier to raise funds. 15-Sep-1998 The Global Mobile Commerce Forum, which includes Visa, Mondex and all the UK clearing banks, is to begin European trials early next year of a mobile commerce terminal that will allow people to download money onto a smart card. 14-Sep-1998 CrestCo is planning to launch a pan-European share settlement network that will reduce the cost of settling pan-European trades and make it easier for private investors in the UK to buy European shares. 14-Sep-1998 Auto Direct is looking to recruit a further 100 staff at its North Staffordshire-based insurance call centre, in order to cope with an increase in business. 10-Sep-1998 Barclays is planning to offer "instant banking" that will allow personal account customers to withdraw funds on the same day they deposit a cheque. 10-Sep-1998 Norwich Union is planning to step up its acquisitions programme, and is keen to expand in UK life and pensions as well as in European countries such as Spain and Ireland. 09-Sep-1998 National Westminster Bank is planning to link up with InterTrust Technologies of California in order to develop a secure system for trading over the internet, which will be launched early next year. 07-Sep-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland has completed the acquisition of a further 23.5% stake in Citizens Financial Group of the US from Bank of Ireland for £448m. 05-Sep-1998 Zurich Reinsurance is discussing the possible sale of its London office to a management team. 04-Sep-1998 Standard Life Bank is to launch a variable rate mortgage this year, and will recruit 200 staff for the new service. 03-Sep-1998 Cattles is looking to sell its corporate lending and factoring operations which could be worth up to £50m, in order to focus on consumer finance. 03-Sep-1998 Safeway and Abbey National are to create the UK's largest in-store bank network, and 160 jobs will be created as the scheme is rolled out to a further 25 Asda branches over the next year. 02-Sep-1998 Standard Life, the mutual assurer, has denied reports that it is planning to move its headquarters from Scotland to England in order to avoid any corporation tax that might be imposed by the planned Scottish Parliament. 31-Aug-1998 AMP, the Australian life assurer, is preparing for another UK acquisition following the purchase of Henderson earlier this year, and there is speculation that it may be interested in Norwich Union. 31-Aug-1998 Bank of Scotland is to consolidate its Leeds activities into the city's £7m Lisbon House development, which is currently under construction. 27-Aug-1998 Black Sea and Baltic General Insurance Company has collapsed due to the Russian financial crisis, and about 50,000 motor and household insurance policyholders in the UK are being asked to arrange alternative cover. 27-Aug-1998 National Westminster Bank is launching a telephone-based information service called Zenda, that will enable subscribers to ask staff to look through a wide range of guidebooks and directories. 27-Aug-1998 Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based fund manager, is forming a joint venture with Toyo Trust & Banking to advise the Japanese company on its European stock investments. 26-Aug-1998 Hambro Countrywide, the financial services and estate agency concern, is changing its name to Countrywide Assured and is also considering a possible share buy-back. 26-Aug-1998 Irish Permanent, the Irish mortgage lender, is planning to bid for ICC Bank, the government-owned lender that is expected to be sold off early next year. 26-Aug-1998 Edward Jones, the US stockbroker, is to open new offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh as part of a plan to have 40 UK offices by the end of the year. 25-Aug-1998 First National, the Irish building society, is to raise £85m when it converts to a bank this year, which will be used to fund organic growth in both the UK and Ireland. 25-Aug-1998 FHM, the men's magazine, is planning to launch a credit card. 24-Aug-1998 Norwich Union is considering plans to bid for Hospital Savings Association, the provider of healthcare cash plans that is facing a rival £200m bid from Bradford & Bingley. 24-Aug-1998 Tesco and Sainsbury are said to be considering plans to launch car insurance products. 24-Aug-1998 Friends Provident is to launch a "stakeholder" pension partnership with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, which will be the first industry-wide pension provided by a union. 22-Aug-1998 Bank of Scotland is to stop selling insurance for Standard Life as it wants the freedom to develop its own range of life assurance products selected from a number of insurance companies. 22-Aug-1998 Asda is planning to open more than 40 Lloyds TSB bank branches in its stores this year. 17-Aug-1998 Ford is to link up with Norwich Union to turn its showrooms into one-stop shops for purchasing vehicles, tax and insurance. 15-Aug-1998 Bank of Ireland is in discussions to sell its 23.5% stake in Citizens Financial, the New England bank, to Royal Bank of Scotland for about £460m. 15-Aug-1998 J Sainsbury is about to become the first supermarket to offer fixed-rate mortgages, through its new telephone-based home loans operation. 15-Aug-1998 Lloyds TSB is said to be considering the sale of its Latin American operations for up to £1bn, in order to help fund acquisitions closer to home. 13-Aug-1998 Britannia Building Society is to merge its two investment subsidiaries - Britannia Investment Managers and Britannia Fund Managers - into a new holding company called Britannia Asset Management. 12-Aug-1998 The Association of British Insurers and five other insurance industry bodies are planning to set up a self-regulatory framework to protect consumers buying general insurance. 11-Aug-1998 Liberty International is looking to acquire a life insurance or savings business, in order to take advantage of the profitable investment opportunities facilitated by the lower share prices that such companies currently have. 07-Aug-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is planning a review of its capital structure in order to improve efficiency, which could result in the transfer of surplus US funds to the development of its personal investment business. 07-Aug-1998 Prudential is planning to expand the recently-acquired head office of Scottish Amicable in Stirling, with the creation of 500 jobs. 06-Aug-1998 Dresdner Kleinwort Benson has launched a new service that will enable retail stockbrokers to offer real-time share dealing to private investors on the internet. 06-Aug-1998 Zurich Re, the reinsurance company, is negotiating a management buy-out, and a deal could be completed before its Swiss parent merges with BAT's financial services division. 06-Aug-1998 Woolwich is looking for suitable mergers and acquisitions to gain access to large customer databases, but is not interested in merging with other mortgage lenders as such deals usually result in lower market share. 06-Aug-1998 Liberty International Jersey is acquiring a 40% stake in Ermitage, the hedge fund manager with assets of $720m, for undisclosed terms. 05-Aug-1998 Willis Corroon has announced the acquisition of a 50% stake in BMZ, the Mexican insurance broker, and the merger of its Venezuelan reinsurance operation with Corsa Corretaje de Reaseguros. 05-Aug-1998 National Savings, the government's retail bank, is considering bids to outsource its administration to either Siemens of Germany or EDS of the US, in order to cut costs and improve rates for savers. 03-Aug-1998 Daiwa Securities of Japan is to cut about 120 jobs in London as part of a worldwide rationalisation, due to the creation of three joint ventures with Sumitomo Bank. 03-Aug-1998 Newcourt Credit Group of Canada has raised £175m to fund expansion in the UK, following its recent purchase of Business Technology Finance from Lloyds TSB. 03-Aug-1998 Marks & Spencer is to start offering individual savings accounts next year, but will sell them via telephone and post instead of at the check-out. 31-Jul-1998 The government has published a draft bill to set up the new Financial Services Authority, which will have the powers currently held by a dozen regulatory bodies as well as additional rights to investigate and fine. 31-Jul-1998 Lloyds TSB is now free to make acquisitions and close branches, having won parliamentary approval to finalise the merger of Lloyds Bank and TSB. 30-Jul-1998 CGU is planning to introduce a single marketing operation for its life insurance business in October, and has also expressed its desire to participate in the privatisation of Poland's state pension system next year. 29-Jul-1998 Brewin Dolphin, the private client stockbroker, is looking to acquire a broker in the south-west of England in order to fill a gap in its geographical coverage. 28-Jul-1998 The government has announced plans to abolish the Insurance Brokers' Registration Council in order to eliminate any potential power conflict with the news Financial Services Authority. 28-Jul-1998 Nationwide members have narrowly voted for the building society to retain its mutual status, with 50.8% rejecting an attempt to convert it into a bank. 24-Jul-1998 The London International Financial Futures Exchange (Liffe) is to undergo a major review of its strategy by September in order to prepare for its conversion from an institution into a business, and a stock exchange listing could follow. 24-Jul-1998 Standard Life has decided against offering the life assurance component of the new individual savings accounts, claiming that its existing life products offer better long-term returns or cheaper premiums. 23-Jul-1998 Abbey National is setting up a £30m software factory in Milton Keynes, which will be run by Unisys and will aim to ensure that its systems are free from the year 2000 bug. 22-Jul-1998 Network Holdings, the corporate investigation division of Hambros, is facing a possible takeover bid from Decision Strategies Fairfax International, the US firm that is looking for ways to expand into the UK. 22-Jul-1998 The Bank of England is to cut more than 200 jobs over the next two years due to the transfer of its banking supervision function to the Financial Services Authority, the City's new super-regulator. 20-Jul-1998 Capita Group has raised its stake in Equitable Holdings, the debt recovery concern, from 49% to 66% at a cost of £4m. 20-Jul-1998 NatWest Stockbrokers is looking into the possibility of becoming a marketmaker in privatisation and demutualisation shares, which would enable to retain profits that would otherwise have been passed on to other companies. 20-Jul-1998 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of the US is moving into the UK retail investment market by using a mutual fund model that involves no entry or exit charges and investments are sold direct, rather than via an adviser. 17-Jul-1998 Dresdner Kleinwort Benson is launching the UK's first live internet share dealing system, which it will sell to stockbrokers allowing them to rebrand it for their customers. 16-Jul-1998 Wintrust, the merchant bank, has expressed an interest in selling a significant stake to a larger bank, and is also considering the possibility of an alliance with a private bank in continental Europe. 15-Jul-1998 Equifax of the US is acquiring a 40% stake in Request UK, the developer of an innovative transaction system that provides a link between providers of financial, travel and telecoms services. 14-Jul-1998 Exco, the lossmaking money and security broker, is discussing a possible reverse takeover by Intercapital, which could herald the start of the long-awaited consolidation in the money broking sector. 11-Jul-1998 Coutts is selling its institutional custody and unit trust trusteeship operation, which holds over £9bn in assets as custodian, to the Bank of New York. 09-Jul-1998 Network Holdings, the corporate investigating firm that used to be part of the Hambros banking group, is said to be facing a possible management buy-out. 08-Jul-1998 The London stock exchange has agreed an alliance with its Frankfurt counterpart in order to create a pan-European stock market, and other European bourses may join the grouping in the future. 08-Jul-1998 The Association for Payment Clearing Services is preparing plans for the introduction of chip-based plastic smart cards, with the first such cards being issued early next year. 08-Jul-1998 Cantrade Private Bank Switzerland, the Jersey-based subsidiary of UBS, is undergoing a review of its activities by Jersey's Financial Services Commission, following a recent court case in which it was charged with criminal recklessness. 07-Jul-1998 Mondex UK is ending its three-year electronic cash card trial in Swindon, and will now focus on the commercial development of the product and a significant roll-out in London. 06-Jul-1998 Legal & General is planning to offer a branded stakeholder pension to football supporters and is in discussions with a number of football clubs. 06-Jul-1998 Investec of South Africa is to combine its two UK private client stockbroking companies, Carr Sheppards and Henderson Crosthwaite, under the new name of Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite. 04-Jul-1998 Standard Life is to restructure its range of unit trusts by cutting charges and converting them into open ended investment companies (Oeics). 02-Jul-1998 Eagle Star is to cut 540 jobs in its commercial insurance arm over the next two years, in order to reverse a decline in its performance. 02-Jul-1998 Industry associations and consumer groups across the EU have agreed a set of principles to enable hotels and shops to accept payments in euros as well as national currencies from January. 01-Jul-1998 Woolwich is to set up a call centre in Clacton-on-Sea that will offer advice on all its banking services, creating 400 jobs. 30-Jun-1998 Barclays is developing formal servicing arrangements with leading local banks in Austria, Finland and Belgium, in order to offer Europe-wide services to its corporate clients. 26-Jun-1998 Caspian Securities is to close or sell all of its businesses in order to stem losses at the emerging markets investment bank. 25-Jun-1998 Bank of Scotland's Capital Bank subsidiary is said to be planning to create 700 jobs at new offices in Speke-Garston near Liverpool. 24-Jun-1998 Hogg Robinson has announced plans to bring its business travel and financial services divisions closer together, in order to expand the range of services on offer to customers and to eliminate overlapping costs. 24-Jun-1998 National Westminster Bank has cut its advertising agencies from eight to one by appointing TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, and hopes to gain a more consistent image as it strives to focus on its core strengths in retail and commercial banking. 23-Jun-1998 The Financial Services Authority is planning to allow unit trusts to quote a single buying and selling price, as opposed to the current dual price system, in time for the launch of Individual Savings Accounts next April. 22-Jun-1998 Alliance & Leicester is said to have been considering the possibility of merger discussions with Woolwich, in order to form the third largest mortgage lender in the country with residential mortgage assets of £50bn. 22-Jun-1998 Zurich Group of Switzerland is planning to reorganise its asset management operations following the merger with BAT's financial services business, and London will be used as the base for international expansion. 22-Jun-1998 Sainsbury's Bank is to introduce information centres in 400 of its shops by the end of the year, to enable customers to phone bank staff direct. 22-Jun-1998 Union Bank of Switzerland is considering plans to sell PDFM, the UK fund management group, and Goldman Sachs and Halifax are both said to be interested. 20-Jun-1998 Admiral, the telephone-based motor insurer, has been put up for sale by Brockbank Group, and talks have begun with a number of potential buyers. 20-Jun-1998 Kidsons Impey and Moores Rowland, the two accountancy firms, are discussing the possibility of a merger, although a final decision is not expected for some time. 19-Jun-1998 Barclays is linking up with the government to trial a new system of digital signatures carried on smartcards to enable people to file tax returns via the internet, and a host of other financial services applications could follow. 17-Jun-1998 Oman National Holding Company is set to acquire the remaining 37% stake in Oriel Group, the insurance group. 17-Jun-1998 National Westminster Bank is in discussions to sell London's International Finance Centre, formerly known as NatWest Tower, to a consortium that includes Greycoat, Hermes and Mercury Asset Management. 16-Jun-1998 The Post Office is to introduce a range of personal and household insurance products for sale over its counters, in partnership with Royal & Sun Alliance. 15-Jun-1998 ED&F Man is looking to acquire boutique fund managers in the UK and US in order to expand its asset management business. 12-Jun-1998 Amvescap is to cut 600 jobs at its LGT Asset Management business, with most of the savings coming from the integration of LGT's back office operations in the US. 12-Jun-1998 HSBC Holdings has cut 40 jobs in London, by reorganising both the Midland's treasury dealing division and the HSBC Investment Bank's specialised finance operations. 12-Jun-1998 The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union is to offer a pension policy to its 730,000 members, which will be contracted out to Scottish Mutual. 10-Jun-1998 Willis Corroon is buying a 50% stake in Gruppo Ital Brokers, the Italian insurance broker, as part of a strategy to gain a leading position in each of its markets. 10-Jun-1998 Prudential is planning to increase its stake in its Malaysian business, Berjaya Prudential Assurance, from 30% to 51% at a cost of £34m. 06-Jun-1998 Norwich Union is said to be planning to set up its own bank in October, following in the footsteps of a number of other insurance companies. 05-Jun-1998 Arthur Andersen has withdrawn from talks to acquire Wilde Sapte, the City law firm, following the departure of certain staff since the deal was announced in March. 04-Jun-1998 Tesco is test-marketing a pension product at 20 of its stores, in a joint venture between its Tesco Personal Finance division and Scottish Widows. 03-Jun-1998 Bank of Scotland has formed a joint venture with FI Group to provide IT services to the bank under a five-year £150m outsourcing contract. 03-Jun-1998 Nationwide is moving into the motor insurance market, offering guaranteed cover to all its 8m customers. 01-Jun-1998 Policy Master, the insurance software concern, is planning a flotation on Aim which could value the company at up to £20m. 01-Jun-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland is said to be ready to release Birmingham Midshires from their agreed takeover deal, so that the building society can begin talks with Halifax and any other bidders that emerge. 30-May-1998 Legal & General has sold its Australian life assurance business to Colonial for £339m, and will use the proceeds to invest in its UK business. 28-May-1998 Nationwide is to abolish 30 service fees on its accounts and mortgages in June, such as the charge for moving buildings insurance to another provider, at an estimated cost of £13m a year. 28-May-1998 The Royal Bank of Scotland has rejected an informal merger proposal from Halifax, although no figures were included. 27-May-1998 Zeneca and Kvaerner are linking up with the Eversheds law firm to examine the possibility of launching the first pan-European pension fund, which they say has now become feasible following a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice. 26-May-1998 HSBC Securities is to become the first stockbroker to promote a unit trust, and will target Close Fund Management's European Escalator Fund at both wealthy buyers and institutions. 26-May-1998 The government is considering plans to require employees to join their company's occupational pension scheme, unless they can demonstrate that a better deal is available elsewhere. 26-May-1998 Daiwa Securities, the Japanese stockbroker, is to move the headquarters of its international operation to London. 23-May-1998 Gartmore European Investment Trust is considering plans to make a takeover bid for the Dutch-based European Assets Trust. 22-May-1998 The government has drafted regulations that will allow the new Individual Savings Accounts to be sold without the need for a written signature from the customer, thereby enabling them to be sold by phone or the internet. 22-May-1998 Halifax has decided to open 100 of its bank branches permanently on Sundays, following recent trials. 21-May-1998 Barclays Bank is piloting a "screenphone" banking service that will enable customers to use a larger-than-normal phone to access their bank accounts and link to a number of retailers to order goods. 20-May-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is considering plans to expand its insurance business in the emerging markets of Latin America and the Pacific Rim, instead of making a large acquisition in continental Europe. 20-May-1998 SJ Berwin is to form an alliance with Knopf Tulloch & Partner, the German private equity adviser, in order to benefit from growing opportunities in the German and European private equity markets. 19-May-1998 Ockham Holdings is in discussions to sell its Wise Speke private client stockbroking business in order to raise funds to expand its Highway personal motor insurance business. 19-May-1998 The First National Building Society in Ireland is to convert into a public company, and will change its name to First Active and float in both London and Dublin. 19-May-1998 British American Financial Services is to cut 1,600 jobs when it demerges from BAT Industries and merges with the Zurich insurance group in the autumn, with the bulk of the cuts falling on the Eagle Star operation. 19-May-1998 Norwich Union Healthcare is linking up with Medicentres to offer an innovative insurance product called GP First, which will cover services provided by family doctors. 18-May-1998 Direct Line, the telephone-based insurance company, is launching a motor breakdown service called Direct Line Rescue, which will offer rescue cover based on the type and age of vehicle and roadside garages will be used to attend the breakdowns. 16-May-1998 Scottish Power is considering plans to scrap its trading alliance with the AA, as the motoring organisation is said to be losing interest in selling financial services alongside energy products. 15-May-1998 Legal & General is said to be in discussions with a number of companies about the sale of its Australian life subsidiary, now thought to be worth up to £400m. 14-May-1998 Commercial Union has announced the formation of a joint venture to sell life products in Thailand. 14-May-1998 Dresdner RCM is planning to rationalise its unit trust range, and is said to be looking at the possibility of moving the base for its investment funds from London to perhaps Dublin or Luxembourg. 12-May-1998 John Charcol, the independent mortgage broker, has appointed KPMG to advise on whether to float the business or put itself up for sale. 11-May-1998 Caspian Securities, the investment bank, is to reduce its presence in Asia and eastern Europe, including the closure of offices in Poland, Ukraine and the Philippines. 09-May-1998 Mellon Bank of the US is planning to acquire Newton Investment Management of the UK for over £150m, in a deal that would include the sale of a 33% stake held by Royal Bank of Scotland. 09-May-1998 Co-operative Retail Services is developing a universal smart card in order to offer financial services and promote customer loyalty, in partnership with the Co-operative bank and the Co-operative Wholesale Society. 08-May-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland is expecting to book a £100m profit from the flotation of the Superdiplo supermarket chain in Spain next week, as it currently owns about 48% of the business along with its Spanish partner Banco Santander. 08-May-1998 Prudential is looking to re-enter the life assurance markets of continental Europe, as part of a strategy to build up a global financial services business. 08-May-1998 Midland Securities Services is to provide global custody services for Friends Ivory & Sime, the Friends Provident fund management operation. 07-May-1998 Commercial Union and General Accident, the two insurance groups, have won European Commission approval for their recently-announced merger and expect to complete the deal in June. 07-May-1998 Barclays Bank is launching a telephone-based personal equity plan, and is to spend £70m marketing a range of investments under the b2 brand. 06-May-1998 Cinven, the venture capital concern, has raised £1.5bn to invest in buy-outs, with about half earmarked for UK deals and the remainder for continental Europe. 05-May-1998 Nationwide building society is considering plans to expand into continental Europe via the internet, which would do away with the need to set up a costly branch network. 04-May-1998 NPI, the mutual insurer, is launching an index of socially and environmentally responsible companies called NPI Social Index. 01-May-1998 Park Food, the supplier of Christmas hampers, is launching a new division called Premier Direct Credit in order to use its network of 75,000 agents to sell credit to householders. 01-May-1998 Eversheds is to merge its London office with Frere Cholmeley Bischoff in August, to create one of the top 20 law firms in London. 01-May-1998 Raphael Zorn Hemsley, the corporate finance adviser, is planning a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. 30-Apr-1998 Merrill Lynch, the US investment bank, is planning to open offices in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol, creating 300 jobs. 29-Apr-1998 Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to buy out its US partner in the RBS Advanta credit card joint venture. 28-Apr-1998 Seven small building societies based around Leicestershire - Hinckley & Rugby, Ilkeston Permanent, Mansfield, Loughborough, Market Harborough, Shepshed, and Earl Shilton - have formed a joint venture called Mutual One to achieve economies of scale in areas such as advertising, purchasing, and internal auditing. 25-Apr-1998 The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange has put forward plans to transform itself into a profit-based organisation in order to fend off competition from Deutsche Terminborse, and the proposal will be voted on by members next month. 23-Apr-1998 Nationwide building society is running a six-month trial in Swindon of an ATM that uses an iris scanner to prove the customer's identity. 22-Apr-1998 Limit, the Lloyd's of London corporate investor, is acquiring the remaining 35% of the Bankside managing agency for £41m, as part of a strategy to use its own managing agents for underwriting. 22-Apr-1998 Nationwide has confirmed that members will be voting in July on whether it should convert from a mutual building society into a bank. 21-Apr-1998 British Steel is planning to start paying some of its UK, Australian and Brazilian suppliers in euros instead of pounds and dollars, in order to reduce losses from exchange rate changes. 20-Apr-1998 Thomson Financial Services has invested £6m in the development of a new system that will enable banks and brokers to provide clients with tailored research using electronic distribution rather than mail and fax. 20-Apr-1998 Charles Schwab is developing an instant share dealing service on the internet, giving UK investors direct access to its brokers. 20-Apr-1998 Hambros is planning to demerge its 51% stake in the Hambro Countrywide chain of estate agents, and has identified a number of potential bidders for the remaining shell of the merchant banking group. 18-Apr-1998 Alchemy is said to be planning to raise up to £250m to build on its European private equity business by targeting companies in the UK, Germany and Switzerland. 18-Apr-1998 Co-operative Bank has launched an internet banking service, and has also been building up a telephone banking service at the expense of its branch network. 16-Apr-1998 Flemings has acquired a 60% stake in UCB Capital, the Russian stockbroker, for about $10m, and will rename it Fleming UCB. 14-Apr-1998 ED&F Man is acquiring the brokerage accounts of Gerald Financial Group for £5.9m, which will enable it to become a ring dealing member of the London Metal Exchange. 14-Apr-1998 The Channel Islands are said to be at risk of losing their special tax status under EU proposals for a new tax directive. 13-Apr-1998 Singer & Friedlander is planning to buy a large stake in Postabank, the Hungarian bank, in a deal that will include the acquisition of $300m of debt owed by Russia to Hungary. 11-Apr-1998 Eastgate has bought Hiscox Insurance's Kent-based processing facility for £1.5m. 09-Apr-1998 Ventura, a subsidiary of the Next retail group, is to open a £15m customer service centre that will provide billing facilities for companies on the site of an old colliery near Rotherham, creating 1,750 jobs. 08-Apr-1998 Bank of Scotland has begun offering its electronic banking service to corporate customers, in order to reduce business banking costs by up to 25%. 06-Apr-1998 The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) is considering plans to float on the stock market in order to introduce a new corporate structure and reverse the recent decline in its fortunes. 06-Apr-1998 NPI, the life assurer, has arranged an innovative £260m financing programme that will help it maintain its mutual status and improve returns to policyholders. 04-Apr-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance has confirmed that it has become the first UK insurer to win a licence to operate in China, and it is expected to start by offering policies in Shanghai. 03-Apr-1998 Abbey National is considering plans to sell its Spanish mortgage finance and loans business following heavy losses, but says it has no intention of withdrawing from France or Italy. 03-Apr-1998 Nationwide is facing another attempt to force it to convert from a mutual building society into a bank, and its members will be balloted in July. 03-Apr-1998 Commercial Union is planning to set up a life assurance operation in Moscow, and products are expected to be distributed throughout Russia using a tied salesforce. 02-Apr-1998 Credit Lyonnais is planning to merge its UK stockbroking business, based on Laing & Cruickshank, into a Europe-wide operation in order to provide a pan-European service. 02-Apr-1998 Lloyds TSB is to stop offering mortgage advice through most of its branch network, and will instead provide information only, in a move that will reduce its potential liability for mis-selling. 01-Apr-1998 Rathbone Brothers, the private client fund manager, is planning to start making acquisitions again in order to benefit from an expected consolidation in the sector. 01-Apr-1998 National Westminster Bank is launching a new investment banking business called Hawkpoint Partners, and is on the look-out for staff. 01-Apr-1998 Vanguard, the US mutual fund manager, is planning to move into Europe with a range of index-tracking funds, focusing specifically on company pension plans in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. 01-Apr-1998 Chartfield, the financial planning and fund management company, has been forced by Fimbra and the Personal Investment Authority to stop taking new business because of fears over the company's solvency. 31-Mar-1998 HSBC is to consolidate its banking and insurance operations into a single site at Canary Wharf in London, a move being seen as the most significant defection from the City by a financial services company. 31-Mar-1998 Legal & General is considering plans to float its Australian life assurance subsidiary, which could be worth about £260m, in order to increase its focus on its core UK market. 31-Mar-1998 Standard Life Bank is planning to launch a nine-minute mortgage in the autumn, including both fixed-rate and variable-rate products. 30-Mar-1998 Investec of South Africa is negotiating the acquisition of Guinness Mahon Holdings, the UK investment bank owned by the Bank of Yokohama. 28-Mar-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is expecting to become the first UK company to win approval to offer insurance in China next week. 27-Mar-1998 Lazard Brothers is considering plans to move its unit trust business from London to Dublin in order to cut administration costs and combine all its back-office functions in one location. 27-Mar-1998 Societe Generale of France is to set up a London-based movie financing division in order to invest in new UK and European films. 26-Mar-1998 Sears is setting up a joint venture with Equifax of the US to offer financial services through its store card. 26-Mar-1998 Save & Prosper is to stop taking new customers for its pensions business in order to focus on personal equity plans and individual savings accounts. 26-Mar-1998 ING Barings is to refocus its investment banking business giving priority to western Europe over emerging markets, in a reorganisation that will also result in the closure of its London-based equity derivatives operation. 25-Mar-1998 Boots has confirmed plans to start offering insurance products for accidents, pregnancy, travel and dental care, at 250 of its largest stores next month. 25-Mar-1998 Britannic Assurance is looking to expand its product range, including a deposit account run in conjunction with Bank of Scotland, unsecured loans, health insurance, and investment products. 25-Mar-1998 Secure Trust is to change its name to Secure Trust Banking in order to emphasise the fact that it is a financial services business. 25-Mar-1998 Pearl Assurance is looking to double sales in its home services insurance business over the next four years, by focusing on the lower end of the market and by acquiring another company's salesforce. 24-Mar-1998 Clerical Medical is to stop selling insurance policies based on its personal portfolio bond following the Budget clampdown on the tax advantages of such schemes. 21-Mar-1998 Boots is to announce plans to sell health and travel insurance to holders of its Advantage store card. 20-Mar-1998 Fidelity Investments is said to be planning to set up a £10m centre in preparation for the launch of Individual Savings Accounts in April 1999, creating 200 jobs. 20-Mar-1998 Commercial Financial Services of the US is to set up a call centre in Maidstone to offer debt collection services, creating 200 jobs. 19-Mar-1998 Panmure Gordon is setting up an equities trading and market-making operation, and has hired a number of traders from Union Bank of Switzerland. 17-Mar-1998 Arthur Andersen is planning to move into the market for financial legal services through a link-up with Wilde Sapte, a leading UK law firm. 17-Mar-1998 Airtours is to launch a customer loyalty scheme that will offer points to be redeemed against the price of future holidays, and it will also include a Visa card provided by Beneficial Bank. 16-Mar-1998 State Street Global Advisors of the US is to launch a London-based investment management service aimed at high net worth individuals, in its first operation outside the US. 16-Mar-1998 Schroders is to invest £90m in the expansion of its US investment banking operations, and will create a bridge fund to provide acquisition finance in support of its advisory business. 12-Mar-1998 Halifax has made a £780m unsolicited takeover bid for Birmingham Midshires, the building society that has already agreed a £630m deal with Royal Bank of Scotland. 10-Mar-1998 Bradford & Bingley building society is planning to buy the Black Horse estate agency chain from Lloyds TSB, in order to expand its presence on the high street and increase mortgage sales. 10-Mar-1998 Royal & Sun Alliance is looking to build up its life assurance and asset management business through acquisition as part of a newly-announced restructuring that will also see it expand overseas. 06-Mar-1998 Toronto Dominion Bank of Canada is to set up its Green Line discount stockbroking business in the UK later this year as a base to expand into Europe. 05-Mar-1998 British Airways is planning to expand further into financial services, including credit cards, travel insurance and foreign currency, by exploiting its strong brand and upmarket customer base. 05-Mar-1998 First National, the Irish building society, is planning to raise new capital in its autumn flotation in order to fund growth through acquisition. 05-Mar-1998 Lambert Fenchurch is acquiring Westrays New Zealand, the insurance broker, for £0.5m. 03-Mar-1998 Flemings is planning to acquire a 60% stake in United City Bank, Russia's fifth largest stockbroker, as part of a strategy by the UK investment back to build up its business in emerging markets outside Asia. 03-Mar-1998 Save & Prosper, the Robert Fleming unit trust and private banking business, is considering plans to put its credit card operation up for sale. 03-Mar-1998 Societe Generale of France has completed the acquisition of Hambros Bank for £300m, and it is expected to cut hundreds of jobs and sell Hambros' bond operations to Royal Bank of Canada. 28-Feb-1998 Barclays Bank has warned of 400 job cuts at Global Securities Centres in London and Trowbridge, which is a business being temporarily run by Barclays on behalf of Morgan Stanley of the US. 28-Feb-1998 Barclays Bank is to open a telephone banking centre in Sunderland for its Barclaycall service, creating 2,000 jobs. 27-Feb-1998 Liberty International has dropped plans to acquire UK and US financial services companies due to prices being too high at the moment. 27-Feb-1998 KPMG, the accountancy firm, is planning to raise $200m through a bond issue in order to expand its offices in eastern Europe, Asia and the US. 27-Feb-1998 Prudential has dropped plans to buy a bank or building society, and will instead focus on building up its own direct banking business. 26-Feb-1998 Guardian Royal Exchange has completed the acquisition of PPP Healthcare for £435m. 25-Feb-1998 Standard Life is to set up an investment subsidiary called Standard Life Investment Management to focus on corporate pensions and mutual funds. 25-Feb-1998 Birmingham Midshires is to ask that the Royal Bank of Scotland increases the price it is paying for the building society, due to a big rise in the earnings multiples of mutual societies since the deal was agreed last August. 25-Feb-1998 Hibernian, the Irish insurance company, is looking to sell its UK general insurance business which is thought to be worth about £30m. 24-Feb-1998 Barclays and Standard Chartered have dismissed reports that they were negotiating the creation of a £36bn international banking group. 24-Feb-1998 Goldman Sachs Asset Management of the US is to expand its UK pension funds business with its first major European marketing effort. 23-Feb-1998 Card Clear is planning to expand its credit card payments business into North America and eastern Europe, and is on the look out for acquisitions. 20-Feb-1998 Government approval for the £15bn merger of Lloyds Bank and TSB may be delayed following a move by three MPs to block the parliamentary bill on the grounds that the payouts offered to members of the TSB pension scheme are too low. 19-Feb-1998 Barclays has scrapped plans to acquire NatWest, apparently because of the regulatory difficulties involved, and will instead look for an international banking merger. 18-Feb-1998 Barclaycard is linking up with Europay, the European payments system, to trial a new generation of chip-based credit and debit cards that will allow secure transactions to take place over the internet. 18-Feb-1998 Lloyds TSB is to launch a loyalty card scheme later this year which could result in better interest rates being offered to customers who buy a wider range of financial services from the bank. 17-Feb-1998 Commercial Union is to offer a 5% discount on household and motor insurance to members of the National Trust, and will donate 10% of premiums to help the Trust maintain Britain's heritage. 16-Feb-1998 KPMG and Ernst & Young, the leading auditing firms, have called off their merger plans due to the complexity of obtaining regulatory approval in a large number of countries. 14-Feb-1998 Great Universal Stores is linking up with Bank of Scotland to create a new business called GUS Finance that will offer a range of loan products. 13-Feb-1998 NatWest Markets is closing its Frankfurt office with the loss of 38 jobs, and German clients will now be dealt with from the London office. 13-Feb-1998 Britannia is paying out £39m in loyalty bonuses to its 1.1m members in order to demonstrate the benefits of remaining a mutual building society. 13-Feb-1998 Nationwide building society is planning to become an internet service provider in the summer, and believes it can undercut the competition because of its mutual status. 11-Feb-1998 Prudential is to create 1,500 jobs at a new £25m direct banking centre in Derby. 07-Feb-1998 Gartmore, the pension fund manager, has merged its UK and international institutional divisions in an attempt to improve its performance. 07-Feb-1998 HSBC is to change the name of its institutional equities business from HSBC James Capel to HSBC Securities, as part of an ongoing effort to restructure its investment banking business under the parent company name. 06-Feb-1998 Direct Line and Virgin Direct are proposing the launch of a kitemark scheme for low-cost, low-risk, savings products. 06-Feb-1998 Commercial Union is in discussions to acquire Berlinische Lebensvericherung, the German life assurance company, for about £190m. 03-Feb-1998 Bradford & Bingley has found that 71% of its members want it to remain a building society rather than convert to a bank. 02-Feb-1998 National Savings is to sell Premium Bonds on the internet in order to attract younger people to this method of saving. 02-Feb-1998 Banque Nationale de Paris has made an offer for the UK subsidiary of Peregrine, the collapsed Hong Kong investment bank. 31-Jan-1998 Barclays is in discussions with Fidelity International about taking on the clients of its FBS broking subsidiary, which was closed last week. 31-Jan-1998 Prudential, the life insurer, is planning to move from its Holborn Bars headquarters in central London, and is looking for a new site in the City. 30-Jan-1998 Halifax is to test Sunday opening at 200 of its high-street banks from mid-March, which could enable it to attract mortgage purchasers. 29-Jan-1998 Henderson, the independent fund manager, is in talks with an unnamed potential bidder. 29-Jan-1998 The Co-operative Insurance Society is to start offering an instant access savings account in collaboration with the Co-operative Bank, and further alliances between the different parts of the Co-operative movement are expected to follow. 28-Jan-1998 Prudential is increasing its stake in Berjaya Prudential Assurance, the Malaysian life insurer, from 30% to 51%, but it will not be able to take full control due to restrictions on foreign ownership of Malaysian insurance companies. 28-Jan-1998 Barclaycard is linking up with BTI UK Hogg Robinson to launch a jointly branded corporate Visa card that will enable companies to manage their business travel expenses in a single system. 27-Jan-1998 Freshfields, the UK-based law firm, is forming an alliance with Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund of Germany which could result in a full merger within two years. 26-Jan-1998 Fidelity Investments is to close its broking subsidiary, with some of the 260 employees facing redundancy, in order to focus on its investment business. 24-Jan-1998 Daily Mail & General Trust is to acquire Risk Management Solutions, the Silicon Valley provider of insurance software and information, for between £53m and £130m depending on performance. 23-Jan-1998 British American Financial Services is looking to expand its position in the market for independent financial advice, and believes an acquisition would be the best way to achieve this aim. 23-Jan-1998 The proposed merger of the accountancy firms Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand is undergoing an antitrust investigation by the European Commission which could result in the deal being blocked or, more likely, an alteration in the terms. 23-Jan-1998 Building societies attracted net savings of £12.5bn in 1997, the best year for a decade and comparing to just £3.5bn in 1996, according to the Building Societies Association. 22-Jan-1998 Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the US investment bank, has announced details of its European expansion which include the setting up of an equities research, sales and trading business in London, creating up to 200 jobs. 21-Jan-1998 Barclays is planning a major reorganisation in April, including the creation of new global divisions for retail financial services, corporate banking, Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investors. 20-Jan-1998 Baker Tilly, the accountancy firm, is quitting the BKR global co-operative network to join the rival Summit International Associates in order to help it compete with the Big Six. 20-Jan-1998 Abbey National is acquiring Whitechapel Corporate Services, the consultant specialising in company car benefits, from Sedgwick for undisclosed terms. 20-Jan-1998 Sainsbury's Bank is moving into household insurance in conjunction with Royal & Sun Alliance. 20-Jan-1998 Barclays Bank is to open its first drive-thru cash machine at Hatton Cross near Heathrow by Easter, and it could be followed by a network across the UK. 19-Jan-1998 National Westminster Bank is to sponsor the Jordan Formula One motor racing team in order to promote its card services throughout Europe. 19-Jan-1998 British Benefit Friendly Society is planning to transform itself from a small society into a major financial services organisation selling life assurance, pensions and other savings products, and is asking members to vote in five new people to the management committee. 17-Jan-1998 Safeway is launching a direct savings account in conjunction with Abbey National, using tiered interest rates rather than the flat rates offered by Sainsbury and Tesco. 17-Jan-1998 Credit Suisse First Boston has made over 30 investment bankers redundant at its recently-acquired BZW business, and further job losses are expected in the equities division. 17-Jan-1998 Virgin is rolling out its Virgin One combined mortgage and savings account ahead of schedule due to the high level of interest it has generated. 16-Jan-1998 Scottish Equitable is renaming its investment division to Scottish Equitable Asset Management as part of a plan to expand its fund management business by increasing its share of the pooled pension funds market. 16-Jan-1998 Colonial, the financial services group, is planning to recruit up to 400 staff from GAN Life, thereby doubling the size of its salesforce. 15-Jan-1998 Halifax is planning to expand its telephone-selling operation during 1998 by offering mortgages, life assurance and savings, thereby utilising spare capacity that was needed for its flotation. 15-Jan-1998 Hambros shareholders have approved plans to sell the banking division to Societe Generale de France for £300m, and the deal could be completed by March. 15-Jan-1998 Beneficial Bank is to close down all its current account facilities from the end of February as it has decided that they are not one of its core areas. 12-Jan-1998 Lloyds TSB is reviewing the future of its Black Horse estate agency chain and may opt for a trade sale or management buy-out if it decides the business does not fit its strategy. 12-Jan-1998 Tasco Europe, the accountancy joint venture between Shell International and Ernst & Young, is to start offering accounting services to pan-European companies, and will create 400 jobs in Glasgow over the next three years. 09-Jan-1998 Coutts is to close three of its four US banking offices and consolidate them into Miami, while its parent, NatWest, is to close its offices in Beverly Hills and San Diego. 09-Jan-1998 Teather & Greenwood is discussing the possibility of reversing into NRP, the residential property company quoted on Aim, which would make it one of only a few listed stockbrokers. 06-Jan-1998 The Inter-Alliance chain of financial advisers is to raise £5m with a listing on Aim in order to expand to 1,500 advisers over the next three years. 05-Jan-1998 The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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