Bank and Clients plc was a British

private bank Private banks are banks owned by either the individual or a general partner(s) with limited partner(s). Private banks are not incorporated. In any such case, creditors can look to both the "entirety of the bank's assets" as well as the entire ...

, which was formed by combining: Church House Trust, a retail bank founded in 1978 and Ocean Capital, a specialist corporate lender founded in 2002. B&C was based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. In January 2010 the former Church House Trust plc was acquired by

Virgin Money Virgin Money may refer to: * Virgin Money (brand), a financial services brand owned by Virgin Group * Virgin Money UK, a British banking and financial services company owned by Nationwide Building Society Nationwide Building Society is a Bri ...

as a way for the Virgin Group to gain a banking licence to begin a retail banking operation. The investments division was not included in the acquisition, and continues to operate independently as

Church House Investments Church House Investments Limited is a private British investment management company based in Sherborne, United Kingdom. Church House Investments and Church House Trust were corporately linked companies until Virgin Money acquired Church House T ...

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...

. Virgin Money sold Church House to Ocean Industries S.A. in 2014, and it was merged with Ocean Capital to become Bank and Clients. Former HSBC Mexico Chief Executive Officer Sandy Flockhart was named chairman in December 2014, and was replaced in early 2016 by the Conservative peer, Lord Strathclyde.

History

Origins

The origins of Church House can be traced back to 1792 when Edward Batten formed Messrs. Batten & Co. Batten was the senior of three partners and was later joined by his son John Batten in 1829. After a number of mergers and acquisitions in the nineteenth and early twentieth century the bank grew, until a number of the members of the Batten family were casualties of the First World War, leading to the company being purchased by what became the

Westminster Bank Westminster Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales. It was created in 1834 as the London and Westminster Bank. It merged with the London and County Bank in 1909, after which it renamed itself the London County and W ...

. In 1924 Lieutenant Colonel Bill Batten assumed control of the legal practice, and then in 1978 the bank was re-founded. The name of Church House came from the Queen Anne house just opposite St. John's parish church in the centre of Yeovil that was first occupied by Nathaniel Batten in 1720. The bank moved from the building in 1999 to a former glove factory, having grown too large for the old premises.

Acquisitions and rebrand

On 8 January 2010

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

announced the acquisition of Church House Trust for £12.3 million, giving Virgin a small foothold in the UK banking market. The bank was due to be renamed under the Virgin brand. Virgin Money did not purchase

, and that company continues to operate independently. Following Virgin's purchase of Church House Trust the company was renamed Virgin Bank Ltd. In January 2012 Virgin Money bought

Northern Rock Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank in ...

, and renamed Virgin Bank Ltd again as Church House Trust Limited. On 18 December 2012 Virgin agreed to sell Church House Trust Limited to SAV Credit subject to FSA approval. The sale was not completed. On 30 November 2014 Church House Trust Limited was sold to Ocean Industries S.A. for £13 million. The company was renamed Bank and Clients after the purchase by Ocean in December 2014.

Demise

In April 2019, the bank announced the temporary withdrawal of its range of mortgage products from the market. It was then announced that on 31 January 2020 Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait had concluded a buy and sell agreement for the full acquisition of Bank and Clients for an undisclosed sum. However, the deal failed to progress, with Bank and Clients' website then confirming that they are no longer offer mortgages or savings. On 1 February 2021, it was announced that Claire Bridel had resigned as CEO, with Nicole Coll taking the position of executive director. It was then announced on 8 February 2021 that

Tandem Money Tandem Money is a company that owns Tandem Bank, one of the UK's original challenger banks. Tandem Bank is a digital bank with a mobile app, and no branches. The acquisition of Harrods Bank in 2017 allowed the company to provide services using t ...

had agreed to purchase the remaining B&C mortgage book, consisting of 300 B&C customers for an undisclosed amount. In September 2021, the Bank of England confirmed B&C had applied to cancel their banking licence. On 8 January 2022, the company had appointed liquidators and had fully ceased trading.

References

External links

* {{UK banks Defunct banks of the United Kingdom Banks established in 1978 1978 establishments in England