A HANDFUL OF lenders dominate British banking. Just four hold 70% of Britons’ main current (checking) accounts. Undaunted—and encouraged by financial supervisors and competition watchdogs—a platoon of challengers is nonetheless taking on the giants, on the high street and online. On October 15th one of them, CYBG, established itself as the leader of that pack, by completing its takeover of another, Virgin Money, for £1.7bn ($ 2.2bn).
With £84bn in assets and £59bn in deposits, CYBG is still dwarfed by the heavyweights of British banking (see chart). But the deal spreads its reach southward, adding Virgin’s 70-odd branches to those of Clydesdale, a 180-year-old Scottish bank, and Yorkshire Bank, founded in 1859. (Eventually all will bear the supposedly trendier Virgin name.) CYBG also expects to save £120m in annual operating costs by 2021. And it is taking pains to avoid the computing pitfalls that befell a rival, TSB…
