Almost two million bank customers at Royal Bank of Scotland are to unexpectedly have their current and savings accounts transferred to Santander. The migration of the accounts comes after the Spanish banking giant bought 318 bank branches from state-owned RBS.
The sale was forced on RBS following the Government’s multi-billion pound rescue package. The branches include all 311 RBS branded branches in England and Wales and seven Natwest branded branches in Scotland.
The accounts will not be switched over for another 12 to 18 months. Mortgage customers will also be switched to Santander as part of the deal if they bank at one of the affected branches.
Do these customers have a choice? Not mentioned.
However, customers should be concerned about what is going to happen to the terms and conditions on their accounts. It may be the catalyst that makes the affected customers check out the whole market for a new account rather than just accepting the changeover to Santander.
Following the deal, Santander will have some 1,645 branches, about 12 per cent of the British market. It bought lender Abbey in 2004 and has since added Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.
No comments:
Post a Comment