Halifax (previously known as Halifax Building Society and colloquially known as The Halifax) is a British
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
ing brand operating as a trading division of
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...
.
It is named after the town of
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woo ...
, where it was founded as a
building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...
in 1853. By 1913 it had developed into the UK's largest building society and continued to grow and prosper and maintained this position within the UK until 1997 when it demutualised.
In 1996, it became Halifax plc, a
public limited company
A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...
which was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
. In 2001, Halifax plc merged with The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland, forming
HBOS
HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland plc, which ...
. In 2006, the
HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006
The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 (c. i) is a local act of Parliament, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2006. The aim of the act was to provide HBOS plc, a banking and insurance group in the UK, the legal authority t ...
legally transferred the assets and liabilities of the Halifax chain to
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
. That bank, originally established by act of parliament, became a standard plc, with Halifax becoming a division of Bank of Scotland. A takeover of HBOS by
Lloyds TSB
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four" clearing banks.
Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank e ...
was approved by the
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...
on 12 January 2009, and on 19 January 2009, Bank of Scotland, including Halifax, formally became part of
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...
.
History
The Jonas Tylor era
The Halifax was formed out of the Loyal Georgian Society, a friendly society which carried out lending. Its decision to withdraw from lending led directly to the formation of the building society. The Halifax Permanent Building and Investment Society was proposed by the town's leaders at a meeting in December 1852. Its rules were ratified in February 1853 and it was registered under the
Benefit Building Societies Act 1836
Benefit(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Benefit'' (album), by Jethro Tull, 1970
* "Benefits" (''How I Met Your Mother''), a 2009 TV episode
* "Benefits", a 2018 song by Zior Park
* '' The Benefit'', a 2012 Egyptian action film
Busi ...
, with the "Investment" omitted from its title. Jonas Tylor, a 24-year-old lawyer's clerk, was appointed Secretary and he was supported as president by John Fisher, manager of the Halifax Joint Stock Banking Company. Jonas Tylor was to serve as Secretary of the Halifax for almost fifty years and he was responsible for the society's strategy of branch expansion from its beginning. Three branches were opened in its first year and by 1862 there was a total of 12 branches, all within Halifax. The first move out of Halifax came in 1862 with the formation of a branch in
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...
, which had its own chairman and directors.Oscar R. Hobson, ''A Hundred Years of the Halifax 1853-1953'', 1953, LondonAnon, ''Eighty Years of Home Building – The Halifax Plan,'' 1937.
One of the features of the Halifax was its willingness to finance the philanthropic housing development by prominent local businessmen.
Edward Akroyd
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Akroyd (1810–1887), English manufacturer, was born into a textile manufacturing family in 1810, and when he died in 1887, he still owned the family firm. He inherited "James Akroyd & Sons Ltd." from his father in 1 ...
, a local mill owner, financed the building of working-class houses "built cheaply, perhaps without taste" through his Goahead Building Club. His subsequent plan to build a "superior class of dwellings" involved the formation of a Building Association and it was this development of the
Akroydon
The Akroydon model housing scheme is a Victorian-era model village at Boothtown, Halifax, in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in 1859 for the worke ...
model housing scheme in the 1860s that was financed by the Halifax. There followed a more substantial scheme with
John Crossley
John Crossley (16 May 1812 – 16 April 1879) was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served from 1874 to 1877 as MP for Halifax in West Yorkshire.
Biography
He was the eldest son of John Crossley (1772–1837) and his wife ...
, a carpet manufacturer, creating The West Hill Park Model Dwellings.
The 1903 history dutifully recorded the branch expansion in the late decades of the nineteenth century. By 1871 another ten local offices had been opened, supported by the construction of a new head office in 1873. Another 22 were opened in the next decade including the important cities of
Bradford
Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
and
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
; the Halifax had developed a significant regional presence. By 1902 there were 11 principal branches, all in Yorkshire cities, with a further 49 smaller branches.
The Enoch Hill era
After the death of Jonas Tylor, the appointment of his successor brought in irEnoch Hill, destined to be one of the great names in building society history. Hill was a mill worker's son becoming a "half timer" in a Leek silk mill aged 8, with little of the required afternoon education forthcoming. He was full time at the age of 13, later moving from mill work to farming, printer's apprentice and then becoming a local jobbing printer. His work with the church was recognised by the elders and he benefitted from their personal tuition. Amongst other activities he helped the blind secretary of Leek United Permanent Benefit Building Society by reading to him. Hill became increasingly involved with the administration of the Leek and that became his main work from 1896. It was from the position of Secretary to the Leek that he was recruited by the Halifax in 1903, at the age of 37.
One of Hill's early decisions was to concentrate on owner occupiers, particularly the cheaper properties. In 1904/5 the Halifax claimed to have opened more new accounts than any incorporated building society in the UK; in 1908 it had the largest advances and by 1913 it was the largest building society by size of assets. Despite its size, by the end of
WWI
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
the Halifax was still largely based in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
and
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
and the next stage was to take the Society national. The first branch in the south was opened at
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...
in 1919; the all-important
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 ...
office followed in 1924. Between 1918 and 1928 around 100 new branches and agencies were opened, doubling the Halifax's coverage; that decade finished with new offices in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
.
By 1928 Halifax was in the unique position of having the two largest building societies in the country and they decided to merge. The Halifax Equitable Building Society had been formed in 1871 and it too grew rapidly. By 1911 it claimed to be the 11th largest; third by 1921 and second by 1924. At the time of the merger the Halifax Permanent had assets of £33m and the Equitable £14m. One of the features of the Equitable was that it had formed its own bank in 1900—the Halifax Equitable Bank. Although independent from the building society, only society members could buy shares. The Equitable Bank was sold to the
Bank of Liverpool
The Bank of Liverpool was a financial institution founded in 1831 in Liverpool, England.
In 1918, it acquired Martins Bank, and the name of the merged bank became the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd. The name was shortened to Martins Bank Ltd ...
and Martins on the grounds that banking was best left to specialists. The Halifax Permanent Building Society paralleled the Equitable by forming its own bank in 1910—the Halifax and District Permanent Banking Company—but that was sold in 1917. Following the merger, branches were quickly opened in a number of leading cities:
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
in 1929; and
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
,
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
and
Newcastle
Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
in 1930. On the back of the expansion in branches and agencies, and helped by the boom in private housing, assets increased from £47m after the 1928 merger to £123m in 1938. That was the year in which Sir Enoch Hill retired, at the age of 72, having been in charge of the Halifax for 35 years. He had been Chairman of the National Association of Building Societies from 1921 to 1933; the first secretary of the International Congress of Building Societies in 1914 and was knighted in 1928.
New head office
A new head office was built at Trinity Road, Halifax, in 1973. The distinctive diamond-shaped building was used on marketing material during the 1980s and 1990s. Underneath the building is a specially constructed deedstore which is used to store property
deed
A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...
s for a one-off charge of £10. It is computerised and could originally be filled with Halon gas in the event of fire. Its importance has diminished in recent years because property data is now kept on a central database kept by
HM Land Registry
His Majesty's Land Registry is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government, created in 1862 to register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. It reports to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governme ...
.
Demutualisation
The deregulation of the financial services industry in the 1980s saw the passing of the
Building Societies Act 1986
The Building Societies Act 1986 (c. 53) is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom governing building societies
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institutio ...
which allowed societies greater financial freedoms, and diversification into other markets. Accordingly, the Halifax acquired an estate agent to complement its mortgage business. It also expanded by offering
current accounts
A transaction account (also called a checking account, cheque account, chequing account, current account, demand deposit account, or share account at credit unions) is a deposit account or bank account held at a bank or other financial institutio ...
and credit cards, traditionally services offered by commercial banks. In 1993, it established a Spanish subsidiary, Banco Halifax Hispania, mainly serving British expatriate mortgage customers.
The 1986 act also allowed building societies to demutualise and become
public limited companies
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...
instead of mutually owned organisations, owned by the customers who borrowed and saved with the society. Although the
Abbey National
The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies.
It was the first building society in the United Kingdom to Demutualisation, demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The ba ...
demutualised in 1989, the process was not repeated until the late 1990s, when most of the large societies announced demutualisation plans. In 1995, the Halifax announced it was to merge with the
Leeds Permanent Building Society
The Leeds Permanent Building Society was a building society founded in Leeds, England in 1848 and was commonly known in a shortened form as The Leeds or The Perm. It should not be confused with the extant Leeds Building Society (formerly Leeds ...
and convert to a plc. The Halifax floated on the
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
on 2 June 1997. Over 7.5 million customers of the Society became shareholders of the new bank, the largest extension of shareholders in UK history.
As Halifax plc, the new bank was the fifth largest in the UK in terms of market capitalisation. Further expansion took place with the 1996 acquisition of Clerical Medical Fund Managers, a UK life insurance company. In 1999, the Halifax acquired the
Birmingham Midshires Building Society
Birmingham Midshires is an online trading name of Bank of Scotland plc (part of Lloyds Banking Group). It was headquartered at Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton. It previously had 67 branches throughout England and Wales. Previously, Birm ...
and ComparetheLoan. In 2000, Halifax established
Intelligent Finance
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695 to devel ...
, a telephone-and-internet-based bank.
Formation of HBOS
In 2001, a wave of consolidation in the UK banking market led Halifax to agree a £10.8 billion merger with the
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
. The new group was named Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) with headquarters in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, and retained both Halifax and the Bank of Scotland as brand names. Halifax branches in the rest of the UK use the Bank of Scotland brand for business banking. In 2006 the
Bank of Scotland (Ireland)
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Limited was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Scotland, which later became part of Lloyds Banking Group. It offered commercial and corporate banking services under the Bank of Scotland brand and retail banking se ...
, HBOS's main retail bank in Ireland, announced that it would be rebranding its retail business as Halifax, citing the Irish public's exposure to Halifax advertising on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including:
**ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...
as among the reasons. The Bank of Scotland name was to be retained for business banking.
In 2006, the
HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006
The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 (c. i) is a local act of Parliament, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 2006. The aim of the act was to provide HBOS plc, a banking and insurance group in the UK, the legal authority t ...
was passed. The aim of the Act was to simplify the corporate structure of HBOS. The Act was fully implemented on 17 September 2007 and the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc transferred to Bank of Scotland plc. The Halifax brand name was to be retained as a trading name, but it no longer exists as a legal entity.
Lloyds Banking Group
HBOS was acquired by the
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...
in January 2009 amid falling share price and speculation as to its future. Bank of Scotland plc (including its brands such as Halifax) became a wholly owned subsidiary of the group.
In February 2009, Halifax made significant changes to its current accounts. From then, all new standard current accounts had zero credit and debit interest, along with no paid and unpaid item charges (which were previously up to £35). Halifax has replaced their basic 'Easycash' account with the 'Basic Account'. They have no unpaid charges and replaced all
Visa Electron
Visa Electron was a debit card product that used the Visa payment system. It was offered by issuing banks in every country with the exception of Canada, Australia, Argentina, Ireland and the United States. The difference between Visa Electron a ...
cards with
Visa Debit
Visa Debit is a brand of debit card issued by Visa in many countries. Numerous banks and financial institutions issue Visa Debit cards to their customers for access to their bank accounts. In many countries the Visa Debit functionality is often ...
cards. They also align themselves with all other Halifax current accounts with an increased ATM daily withdrawal limit of £500. Instead, all overdraft-eligible Halifax 'Standard current account' customers pay £1 per day for being overdrawn by up to £1999.99 within an arranged overdraft, and £2 per day for up to £2999.99 and £3 per day for over £3000.00. For unarranged overdrafts the fee is £5 per day. Credit interest has been replaced by a £5 net payment every month if customers abide by the terms of the 'Reward current account'. These changes were implemented to all current account customers (except student accounts) from December 2009. These changes caused a great deal of media attention at the time of the change, with Martin Lewis and consumer magazine ''
Which?
''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights, and offering indepen ...
'' urging Halifax customers to keep their accounts in credit wherever possible, or consider moving their accounts to an alternative bank, in response to the new charges.
On 16 October 2009, Halifax Estate Agency was sold to LSL Properties for a fee of £1. The branches were renamed as one of LSL's existing brands, Reeds Rains.
On 14 November 2009, HBOS was hit by a power failure which affected all branches, cash machines and online banking. The bank said that the power failure occurred at an IT centre in Copley,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
which caused several problems for Halifax's banking system. Halifax's online banking system did not recover from the power failure for several hours.
Advertising
On Boxing Day 2000, Halifax started a successful marketing campaign, which was continued after the creations of HBOS.
Halifax have also created adverts that have featured
pop culture
Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...
from franchises such as ''
The Flintstones
''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the R ...
'', ''
Top Cat
''Top Cat'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime time on the ABC network. It aired in a weekly evening time slot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season ...
'', ''
Scooby-Doo
''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...
'', the 1939 musical fantasy, ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...
'', and '' Thunderbirds''.
In February 2021, Halifax released a TV advertisement featuring the
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentStand By Me".
See also
*
Sabadell Solbank
Sabadell Solbank was a Spanish bank owned by Banco de Sabadell, which focussed on retail banking for Europeans living in the coastal areas of southern Spain. In 2014, it was fully integrated into the parent company.
History Banco NatWest España
...
Bank of Scotland International
Bank of Scotland International Limited was the international banking division of Bank of Scotland. Established in 2003, it was headquartered in Jersey, and operated branches on the Isle of Man and Hong Kong, until merging with Lloyds TSB Offshor ...