Barclays buy Standard Life Bank

When I left university in 1999, my first job was in the call centre at Standard Life Bank, part of Edinburgh based life assurance company Standard Life. At that stage, the bank had only been open a year and exciting times were anticipated as the bank rapidly grew its mortgage and savings book with its telephone and internet based approach. However, the bank remains a minnow in the financial world with only 287,000 savings accounts and 78,000 mortgage accounts and Standard Life feel that in light of the recession, lending money to the bank doesn't fit with the long-term objectives of the company. As a result, they have sold the bank to Barclays, a world renowned bank with millions of customers, for in the region of £230 million and all 270 Standard Life Bank employees will transfer to Barclays. The Standard Life Bank brand will eventually be scrapped, with £8.8bn of mortgages moving into the Woolwich home loan side and the £5.5bn of savings moving into Barclays itself.

The end of an era.....