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National Westminster Bank has sold Ulster Bank Investment Services to Northern Trust for £8.2m. 07-Mar-2000 National Westminster Bank is acquiring a 13% stake in WorldPay, the Cambridge-based supplier of internet credit card payment services, for £23m. 03-Mar-2000 National Westminster Bank has accepted the takeover bid from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which will lead to the creation of the UK's third largest bank and the loss of up to 14,500 jobs. 11-Feb-2000 National Westminster Bank has agreed to sell its NatWest Equity Partners fund management business to a management team for undisclosed terms. 18-Dec-1999 National Westminster Bank is planning to set up a private banking service for affluent customers called NatWest Priority Banking. 25-Nov-1999 National Westminster Bank has cut 90 jobs in its internal management consultancy department, in order to save £3m a year. 22-Nov-1999 National Westminster Bank is to cut 1,000 head office jobs and 650 corporate banking jobs, and has also announced plans to sell off four units - Ulster Bank, Gartmore, NatWest Equity Partners, and Greenwich NatWest. 28-Oct-1999 National Westminster Bank has abandoned hopes of taking over Legal & General, following the Bank of Scotland approach for NatWest. 07-Oct-1999 National Westminster Bank is to support a new film finance house called Media Capital Partners, which will lend about £500m a year to British film makers. 04-Oct-1999 Bank of Scotland has launched a £22bn hostile takeover bid for National Westminster Bank, and plans to sell NatWest's Gartmore fund management arm, its Greenwich capital markets unit and Ulster Bank. 25-Sep-1999 National Westminster Bank is to sell the Hawkpoint corporate finance acquisitions business to its 100 staff for undisclosed terms. 20-Sep-1999 National Westminster Bank is linking up with Orange to develop the next generation of cashpoint machines capable of topping up pre-paid mobile phones, greeting customers by name and reminding them of anniversaries. 17-Sep-1999 National Westminster Bank is in negotiations to acquire Legal & General for about £11bn, in order to create a major new financial services group. 03-Sep-1999 The NatWest Customer Telephone Centre in Birmingham is to create up to 200 new jobs following an increase in demand for telephone banking services. 11-Mar-1999 National Westminster Bank is selling Gleacher NatWest, its US corporate advisory division, to management for undisclosed terms, as part of an ongoing withdrawal from investment banking. 19-Feb-1999 Abbey National is paying £347m to acquire three businesses from National Westminster - Lombard Motor Finance, Lombard Tricity Finance and Lombard Business Equipment Leasing. 19-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 Lloyds TSB is acquiring three leasing subsidiaries from National Westminster Bank - NatWest Leasing Industries, NatWest Machinery Finance, and NatWest Specialist Finance - for £11m. 19-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 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 National Westminster Bank is to sell Coutts Bahamas, the offshore private bank, to SG Private Banking of France for an estimated $100m. 22-Aug-1998 National Westminster Bank has agreed the sale of London's International Finance Centre, previously known as NatWest Tower, to a consortium of Greycoat, Mercury Asset Management and Hermes Pensions Management, for £226m. 18-Jul-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 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 Lifestyle Communications, the joint venture between National Westminster Bank and European Telecom, is to introduce a new type of mobile phone that will enable retailers to use them as point-of-sale systems for swiping bank cards. 13-May-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 Rexam has acquired NatWest Print, the cheque book printing operation of National Westminster bank, for £8.5m. 03-Mar-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 National Westminster Bank has sold its Canadian bank to Hong Kong Bank of Canada for undisclosed terms. 03-Feb-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 National Westminster Bank is planning to split off its European corporate advisory business into a separate company with a new name, although details have not yet been decided. 05-Dec-1997 National Westminster Bank is to test-launch a 24-hour automated telephone banking service in north London over the next few months. 27-Nov-1997 National Westminster Bank is discussing the sale of its NatWest Markets investment banking division with both Bankers Trust and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. 13-Nov-1997 NatWest has rejected an informal merger approach from Barclays, a move which would have created the second largest banking group in the UK. 13-Nov-1997 Deutsche Morgan Grenfell is discussing the possible acquisition of National Westminster Bank's equities business. 30-Oct-1997 NatWest has sold County NatWest Australia Investment Management to National Australia Bank for undisclosed terms. 02-Oct-1997 National Westminster Bank is looking for a buyer for its broking and capital markets businesses in Australia and New Zealand as part of a strategy to re-focus its investment banking operations. 18-Sep-1997 National Westminster Bank has rejected the idea of a merger with a major financial company, but it would be interested in the acquisition of a smaller company such as TSB Ireland. 06-Aug-1997 National Westminster Bank and Prudential Corporation have terminated merger discussions due to failure to agree terms. 19-Jul-1997 National Westminster Bank is trying to end rumours of a possible takeover bid by Barclays, by asking the Takeover Panel to get Barclays to announce its intentions. 30-Jun-1997 National Westminster Bank is considering plans to scale back the ambitions of its NatWest Markets investment banking operation in order to improve returns to institutional shareholders. 16-Jun-1997 National Westminster Bank is to use Standard Chartered to handle its trade processing in Asia, and will close its own operations in the region. 09-May-1997 Tesco is to launch a wide range of financial services in conjunction with Royal Bank of Scotland, thus ending its alliance with National Westminster Bank. 14-Feb-1997 National Westminster Bank has set up a new unit called NatWest Wealth Management which will combine its life assurance, fund management and private banking operations. 14-Feb-1997 National Westminster Bank's Lombard Tricity Finance division is planning to acquire the retail credit units of Yorkshire Bank. 11-Feb-1997 American Express is to launch an Amex-brand credit card next year in an arrangement with National Westminster Bank. 11-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 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 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 Uunet Pipex has launched a new "secure shopping" system for the internet called The Bureau, with backing from the National Westminster Bank. 29-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 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 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 National Westminster Bank is to sell control of its Spanish retail banking operation to Banco Sabadell. 13-Jun-1996 National Westminster Bank is to acquire Greenwich Captital Markets, the US broker based in Connecticut, from Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan for $600m. 11-Jun-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 Tesco is in discussions with the National Westminster Bank about launching a credit card under the Tesco brand name to be offered to the 8m members of its Clubcard loyalty scheme. 18-Apr-1996 National Westminster Bank is acquiring Gartmore, the fund management concern which was 75% owned by Banque Indosuez, for £472m. 20-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 National Westminster Bank's Lombard division is buying 15% of Credit General Industriel, the French car finance business. 26-Jan-1996 National Westminster Bank is selling its US retail banking unit, NatWest Bancorp, to Fleet Financial in a $3.6bn deal which will see NatWest buy back some assets. 20-Dec-1995 National Westminster Bank is to use independent financial advisers to sell its unit trusts from January. 13-Nov-1995 National Westminster Bank has sold the K3 subsidiary of Management Computing Services to IBM UK for £7m. 21-Oct-1995 National Westminster Bank is selling the Personnel and Payroll Services division of Centre-file to Ceridan Corp of Minneapolis for £33m. 03-Oct-1995
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