Building society
List of building societies -- United Kingdom
Table:
Name

Fate

Successor

Year

Current position

Abbey National

converted to plc

Santander

1989

The new bank, also known as "Abbey", was acquired by Banco Santander and now rebranded as Santander.

Cheltenham and Gloucester
taken over by
Lloyds Bank
1994
Became part of Lloyds TSB, although C&G still had a branch network which became part of TSB Bank in summer 2013.

National & Provincial

taken over by

Abbey National

1995

Business merged into Abbey National (now Santander), name no longer used.

Alliance & Leicester

converted to plc

Santander

1997

Acquired by Banco Santander, which also owns Abbey, in October 2008, and merged into Santander in 2010.

Bristol and West
taken over by
Bank of Ireland
1997
Became a division of Bank of Ireland but its savings balances and branch network transferred to the Britannia Building Society in 2005 (which in turn merged with Co-operative Financial Services in 2009). Bristol & West mortgages ceased trading on 10 January 2009.[14]

Halifax
converted to plc

1997
Became part of HBOS in 2001, which itself became part of Lloyds Banking Group in 2009. Trading name still in use.

Northern Rock

converted to plc

Virgin Money
Northern Rock (Asset Management)

1997

Nationalised following near bankruptcy in February 2008, due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Most of the business bought by Virgin Money UK in January 2012,[15] with remaining riskier mortgage business retained by the government and renamed NRAM plc (now Landmark Mortgages Limited[16]).

The Woolwich

converted to plc

Barclays

1997

Now part of Barclays plc. Woolwich brand name now only used for mortgages from Barclays with the Woolwich branch network merging with that of Barclays in 2007.

Birmingham Midshires

taken over by

Halifax

1999

Now owned by Lloyds Banking Group. The brand name is still retained, but running entirely by post and internet.

Bradford & Bingley

converted to plc

2000

Nationalisation with sale of savings book to Abbey (now Santander).

By analysing the given table along with the supporting text listed at the end.

State the answer to the question: What is the name of the society whose current position 's headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in the City of London ? Respond with the correct answer (omit explanations) in JSON format as {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Base your answer solely on the given information.

Abbey National plc was a bank based in the United Kingdom and former building society , which latterly traded under the Abbey brand name . As the former Abbey National Building Society , it was the first building society in the United Kingdom to demutualise , doing so in July 1989 . The bank expanded through a number of acquisitions in the 1990s , including James Hay , Scottish Mutual , Scottish Provident and the rail leasing company Porterbrook . Abbey National launched an online bank , Cahoot , in June 2000 . In September 2003 , the bank rebranded as Abbey , and in November 2004 , it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group , with a rebrand following in February 2005 . In January 2010 , the savings business of Bradford & Bingley was combined with the bank , and Abbey National plc was renamed Santander UK plc . Prior to the takeover , Abbey National plc was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index .
A public limited company ( legally abbreviated to PLC ) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law , some Commonwealth jurisdictions , and the Republic of Ireland . It is a limited liability company whose shares may be freely sold and traded to the public ( although a PLC may also be privately held , often by another PLC ) , with a minimum share capital of £50,000 and usually with the letters PLC after its name . Similar companies in the United States are called publicly traded companies . Public limited companies will also have a separate legal identity . A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges . In the United Kingdom , a public limited company usually must include the words public limited company or the abbreviation PLC or plc at the end and as part of the legal company name . Welsh companies may instead choose to end their names with ccc , an abbreviation for cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus . However , some public limited companies ( mostly nationalised concerns ) incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes . [ citation needed ] The term public limited company and the PLC/plc suffix were introduced in 1981 ; prior to this , all limited companies bore the suffix Limited ( Ltd. ) , which is still used by private limited companies .
Santander UK plc ( /ˌsɑːntɑːnˈdɛər/ ) is a British bank , wholly owned by the Spanish Santander Group . Santander UK plc manages its affairs autonomously , with its own local management team , responsible solely for its performance . Santander UK is one of the leading personal financial services companies in the United Kingdom , and one of the largest providers of mortgages and savings in the United Kingdom . The bank has circa 20,000 employees , 14 million active customers , with over 800 branches and 64 corporate business centres . The bank , with its head office in Euston , London , was established on 11 January 2010 , when Abbey National plc was combined with the savings business and branches of Bradford & Bingley plc , and renamed Santander UK plc . Alliance & Leicester plc merged into the renamed business in May 2010 . Between 2007 and 2010 , Santander was ranked as the worst bank for customer service in the J. D. Power UK Retail Banking Satisfaction Study . However , its '123 ' product range was ranked third best in the United Kingdom in 2013 , and in a moneysavingexpert.com poll in February 2014 , customers ranked their satisfaction higher than with any of other main high street banks . In October 2011 , Moody 's downgraded the credit rating of twelve financial firms in the United Kingdom , including Santander UK , blaming financial weakness . In June 2012 , Moody rated Santander UK as being in a more financially healthy position than its parent company , Banco Santander . Less than 1% of Santander UK 's business is held abroad .
Banco Santander , S.A. , doing business as Santander Group ( /ˌsɑːntɑːnˈdɛər/ ) , is a Spanish multinational commercial bank and financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain . Additionally , Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres as the 16th-largest banking institution in the world . Although known for its European banking operations , it has extended operations across North and South America , and more recently in continental Asia . Many subsidiaries , such as Abbey National , have been rebranded under the Santander name . The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index . In May 2016 , Santander was ranked as 37th in the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world 's biggest public companies . Santander is Spain 's largest bank . As of 2017 , Santander is the 5th largest bank in Europe with approximately US $ 1.4 trillion in total assets-under-management ( AUM ) . Traded on the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index , the bank has a total market capitalization of $ 69.9 billion .
Cheltenham & Gloucester plc ( C & G ) was a mortgage and savings provider in the United Kingdom , a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group . C & G specialises in mortgages and savings products . Previously , C & G was a building society , the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society . Its headquarters were in Barnwood , Gloucester , Gloucestershire , England . C & G was closed to new mortgage and savings business on 9 September 2013 . The branch network of Cheltenham & Gloucester was transferred to the newly established TSB Bank plc in September 2013 , as part of a divestment of a significant portion of the Lloyds TSB business by Lloyds Banking Group . C & G branches were rebranded under the TSB brand along with a number of Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales . Some C & G savings accounts and mortgages were also transferred to the new TSB Bank at that time ; others remained with C & G . In April 2017 , all remaining mortgage administration was transferred to Lloyds Bank and rebranded and the only remaining products were legacy savings accounts , with the last remaining C & G Fixed Rate Cash ISAs maturing in 2017 .
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales . It has traditionally been considered one of the Big Four clearing banks . The bank was founded in Birmingham in 1765 . It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies . In 1995 it merged with the Trustee Savings Bank and traded as Lloyds TSB Bank plc between 1999 and 2013 . The bank is the principal subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group , which was formed in January 2009 by the acquisition of HBOS by the then-Lloyds TSB Group . That year , following the UK bank rescue package , the British Government took a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group . As a condition imposed by the European Commission regarding state aid , the group later announced that it would create a new standalone retail banking business , made up of a number of Lloyds TSB branches and those of Cheltenham & Gloucester . The new business began operations on 9 September 2013 under the TSB brand . Lloyds TSB was subsequently renamed Lloyds Bank on 23 September 2013 . On 17 March 2017 , the British Government confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold . Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain , and has an extensive network of branches and ATM in England and Wales ( as well as an arrangement for its customers to be serviced by Bank of Scotland branches in Scotland , Halifax branches in Northern Ireland and vice versa ) and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services .
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales . It has traditionally been considered one of the Big Four clearing banks . The bank was founded in Birmingham in 1765 . It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies . In 1995 it merged with the Trustee Savings Bank and traded as Lloyds TSB Bank plc between 1999 and 2013 . The bank is the principal subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group , which was formed in January 2009 by the acquisition of HBOS by the then-Lloyds TSB Group . That year , following the UK bank rescue package , the British Government took a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group . As a condition imposed by the European Commission regarding state aid , the group later announced that it would create a new standalone retail banking business , made up of a number of Lloyds TSB branches and those of Cheltenham & Gloucester . The new business began operations on 9 September 2013 under the TSB brand . Lloyds TSB was subsequently renamed Lloyds Bank on 23 September 2013 . On 17 March 2017 , the British Government confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold . Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain , and has an extensive network of branches and ATM in England and Wales ( as well as an arrangement for its customers to be serviced by Bank of Scotland branches in Scotland , Halifax branches in Northern Ireland and vice versa ) and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services .
TSB Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Banco Sabadell . TSB Bank operates a network of 536 branches across England , Scotland and Wales but has not had a presence in Northern Ireland since 1991 . TSB in its present form launched on 9 September 2013 . Its headquarters are located in Edinburgh and it has more than 5.2 million customers with over £20 billion of loans and customer deposits . The bank was formed from the existing business of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc , into which a number of Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales and all branches of Cheltenham & Gloucester were transferred , and renamed TSB Bank plc . A European Commission ruling that the British government 's 2009 purchase of a 43% stake in Lloyds Banking Group counted as state aid made it necessary for Lloyds Banking Group to sell a portion of its business ; TSB was divested . Post-divestment , TSB offered an initial public offering and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2014 . In 2015 , it was acquired by Spain 's Banco Sabadell .
The National & Provincial Building Society was a mutual building society based in Bradford , England . It was established in 1982 by a merger between the Provincial Building Society and the Burnley Building Society . On 5 August 1996 , Abbey National took over the National & Provincial .
Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society , formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society . The business demutualised in 1997 , when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange . It was listed in the FTSE 250 Index , and had been listed in the FTSE 100 Index from April 1997 until June 2008 . After running into difficulty during the financial crisis , the bank was acquired by the Santander Group in October 2008 , and transferred its business into Santander UK plc in May 2010 . It was fully integrated and rebranded as Santander by the end of 2011 . The bank 's international subsidiary based in Douglas , Isle of Man , Alliance & Leicester International , continued to use the Alliance & Leicester name until it was merged into Santander UK in May 2013 .
Bristol & West ( B & W ) was a former building society in the United Kingdom , one of the first to be demutualised to become a commercial bank . It became a division of the Bank of Ireland in 1997 . Bristol & West had its headquarters in Bristol , England . The bank 's main activity was mortgage lending for residential and commercial customers , although in 2009 its business was transferred to Bank of Ireland and it became a shell company and stopped accepting new customers . The Bristol & West name has since been replaced by the Bank of Ireland brand .
Bank of Ireland Group plc ( Irish : Banc na hÉireann ) is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional 'Big Four ' Irish banks . Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland , the Bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history . At the core of the modern-day group is the old Bank of Ireland , the ancient institution established by Royal Charter in 1783 .
Britannia was a mutual building society in the United Kingdom . It had its headquarters in Leek , Staffordshire , and was the second-largest building society in the UK ( based on total assets of £36.8 billion ) at 31 December 2007 . It became an important provider of both mortgages ( including subprime mortgages through its Platform Home Loans subsidiary ) and savings , as well as commercial lending . It merged with The Co-operative Banking Group in 2009 , and was legally dissolved as a separate organisation on 1 August that year ; it has remained as a trading name of The Co-operative Bank ever since . In January 2013 , the Co-operative announced that the brand would be phased out by the end of 2013 , and began rebranding branches under its own name . However , the Co-operative Bank 's own financial crisis resulted in the original plans being abandoned . Many Britannia branches were instead closed , and only a small number were retained and rebranded .
Co-operative Banking Group Limited ( originally Co-operative Financial Services ) was a UK-based banking and insurance company and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group . Established in 2002 , its head office was located at the CIS Tower , Miller Street , Manchester . It was mainly known through its two main subsidiaries : The Co-operative Bank ( incorporating Smile , the first full internet bank in the UK ) and The Co-operative Insurance . Co-operative Financial Services was formed as a holding company to bring these financial subsidiaries together under one umbrella society and to enable synergies between the businesses to be exploited . Following the Co-operative Bank 's financial crisis in 2013 , the group sold a majority of shares in the business , eventually retaining a 30% stake . As a result , the group was reorganised , and the banking group structure was discontinued .
Halifax ( previously known as Halifax Building Society ) is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland , itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group . It is named after the town of Halifax , West Yorkshire where it was founded as a building society 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 1997 it became Halifax plc , a public limited company which was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . In 2001 Halifax plc merged with The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland , forming HBOS . In 2006 , the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 legally transferred the assets and liabilities of the Halifax chain to Bank of Scotland which became a standard plc , with Halifax becoming a division of Bank of Scotland . A takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB was approved by the Court of Session on 12 January 2009 , and on 19 January 2009 Bank of Scotland , including Halifax , formally became part of Lloyds Banking Group .
HBOS plc was 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 plc , which operated the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands in the UK , as well as HBOS Australia and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited , the group 's insurance division . HBOS was formed by the 2001 merger of Halifax plc and the Bank of Scotland . The formation of HBOS was heralded as creating a fifth force in British banking as it created a company of comparable size and stature to the established Big Four UK retail banks . It was also the UK 's largest mortgage lender . The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 saw the transfer of Halifax plc to the Bank of Scotland , which was now a registered public limited company , Bank of Scotland plc . Although officially HBOS was not an acronym of any specific words , it is widely presumed to stand for Halifax Bank of Scotland . The corporate headquarters of the group were located on The Mound in Edinburgh , Scotland , the former head office of the Bank of Scotland . Operational headquarters were in Halifax , West Yorkshire , England , the former head office of Halifax . The group was acquired and folded into Lloyds Banking Group through a takeover by Lloyds TSB on Monday 19 January 2009 after both sets of shareholders approved the deal . Lloyds Banking Group has stated that the new group will continue to use The Mound as the headquarters for its Scottish operations and will not cease the issue of Scottish bank notes .
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a major British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009 . The Group 's history stems from the founding in 1695 by the Parliament of Scotland of the Bank of Scotland , which is the fifth oldest bank in the United Kingdom . The Group 's headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in the City of London and its registered office is on The Mound in Edinburgh . Lloyds Banking Group 's activities are organised into : Retail Banking ( including Mortgages and Sole Traders ) ; Commercial ; Life , Pensions & Insurance ; and Wealth & International . Lloyds ' has extensive overseas operations in the US , Europe , the Middle East and Asia . Its headquarters for business in the European Union is in Berlin , Germany . Following the takeover , the Group stopped using the name HBOS publicly . The Halifax brand , products and pricing were discontinued in Scotland until it was re-established in 2013 . The Halifax and Lloyds Bank brands are used in England and Wales and the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brand is used in Scotland , each offering different products and pricing . Lloyds Banking Group 's CEO António Horta-Osório told The Banker , We will keep the different brands because the customers are very different in terms of attitude . Lloyds Banking Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . It had a market capitalisation of approximately GB£57.7billion as of 4 March 2014 - the 7th-largest of any LSE company .
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 1997 , when it floated on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol NRK . During the early 2000s the company borrowed substantially to fund mortgages , with the aim of ambitious growth , and also donated large amounts to charitable purposes and communities directly and through sponsorships . The global banking crisis beginning around 2007-08 meant that it was unable to produce income as expected from its loans , and was at risk of being unable to repay the amounts it had borrowed . The news that the bank had approached the government for support with its liquidity led within 24 hours to a public lack of confidence and concerns that savings were at risk , and the bank failed following a bank run as people rushed to withdraw their savings . It was the first British bank in 150 years to fail due to a bank run . Unable to find a commercial buyer or secure the further government support needed , it was taken into public ownership in 2008 , as an alternative to insolvency . By that point the government had extended liquidity support of tens of billions of pounds to Northern Rock . An inquiry concluded that the board had failed to properly protect the bank from the risks inherent in its strategy , or to restrain the executive directors where required , therefore although the bank had sufficient assets , it had become vulnerable . The branch operations were eventually returned to private ownership when the branches and other retail operations were acquired by Virgin Group in 2012 , being rebranded as Virgin Money the same year . The mortgage book of higher risk assets was renamed Northern Rock ( Asset Management ) and later NRAM plc , and remained in public ownership until it was sold to Cerberus Capital Management in 2016 .
Virgin Money is a banking and financial services brand operating in the United Kingdom . The Virgin Money brand was founded by Sir Richard Branson in March 1995 . It was originally known as Virgin Direct , and pioneered index tracking by launching a value personal equity plan into the market . In the 2000s Virgin Money expanded its operations around the world . Virgin Money announced plans to become a retail bank , and attempted to purchase Northern Rock in 2007 before it was nationalised by the British Government . Virgin applied for its own banking licence from the Financial Services Authority in 2009 , and gained one through the acquisition of Church House Trust the following year . Virgin bought Northern Rock plc in January 2012 and rebranded the business as Virgin Money plc . In June 2018 , Virgin Money agreed to a takeover by CYBG PLC which was completed in October 2018 . Virgin Money PLC was merged into Clydesdale Bank PLC on 21 October 2019 , continuing as a trading name and operating under Clydesdale Bank 's banking licence . It is planned that between December 2019 and late 2021 , Virgin Money UK PLC will phase out the Clydesdale Bank , Yorkshire Bank and B brands in favour of the Virgin Money brand .
Landmark Mortgages Limited , formerly Northern Rock ( Asset Management ) plc and later NRAM plc , is a British asset holding and management company which was split away from the Northern Rock bank in 2010 . It was publicly owned through the British Government 's UK Asset Resolution following Northern Rock 's nationalisation in 2008 until NRAM plc was sold to Cerberus Capital Management in 2016 . The company is closed to new business . NRAM held the bad debts of the former Northern Rock bank and was described as the bad bank . The remainder , Northern Rock plc , was designated the good bank , and in 2012 was bought by Virgin Money . Since nationalisation , the assets of NRAM have been sold off in parts , culminating in November 2015 with the sale of £13 billion of mortgages and loans to Cerberus Capital Management . Cerberus purchased NRAM plc as part of the deal in May 2016 , renaming it Landmark Mortgages . The remaining liabilities of NRAM that were not included in the sale were transferred to NRAM ( No . 1 ) Limited , which was renamed NRAM Limited .
In 2008 the Northern Rock bank was nationalised by the British Labour Government , due to financial problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis . In 2010 the bank was split into two parts ( assets and banking ) to aid the eventual sale of the bank back to the private sector . On 14 September 2007 , the Bank sought and received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England , as a result of its exposure in the credit markets , during the 2008 financial crisis . On 22 February 2008 the bank was taken into state ownership . The nationalisation followed two unsuccessful bids to take over the bank , neither being able to fully commit to repayment of savers ' and investors ' money . In 2012 Virgin Money completed their purchase of Northern Rock from UK Financial Investments ( UKFI ) for approximately £1 billion and by October of that year the high street bank operated under the Virgin Money brand .
The financial crisis of 2007-08 , also known as the global financial crisis and the 2008 financial crisis , was a severe worldwide economic crisis considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s , to which it is often compared . The crisis began in 2007 with a depreciation in the subprime mortgage market in the United States , and developed into a full-blown international banking crisis with the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15 , 2008 . Excessive risk-taking by banks such as Lehman Brothers helped to magnify the financial impact globally . Massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies were employed to prevent a possible collapse of the world financial system . The crisis was nonetheless followed by a global economic downturn , the Great Recession . The Asian markets ( China , Hong Kong , Japan , India , etc . ) were immediately impacted and volatilized after the U.S. sub-prime crisis . The European debt crisis , a crisis in the banking system of the European countries using the euro , followed later . In 2010 , the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted in the US following the crisis to promote the financial stability of the United States . The Basel III capital and liquidity standards were adopted by countries around the world .
The Woolwich Equitable Building Society ( later Woolwich Building Society or The Woolwich ) was a United Kingdom financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization . In 1997 it demutualised and became Woolwich PLC . The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange . It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Barclays in 2000 .
Barclays plc ( /ˈbɑːrkliz , -leɪz/ ) is a British multinational investment bank and financial services company , headquartered in London . Apart from investment banking , Barclays is organised into four core businesses : personal banking , corporate banking , wealth management , and investment management . Barclays traces its origins to a goldsmith banking business established in the City of London in 1690 . James Barclay became a partner in the business in 1736 . In 1896 , several banks in London and the English provinces , including Backhouse 's Bank and Gurney 's Bank , united as a joint-stock bank under the name Barclays and Co. Over the following decades , Barclays expanded to become a nationwide bank . In 1967 , Barclays deployed the world 's first cash dispenser . Barclays has made numerous corporate acquisitions , including of London , Provincial and South Western Bank in 1918 , British Linen Bank in 1919 , Mercantile Credit in 1975 , the Woolwich in 2000 and the North American operations of Lehman Brothers in 2008 . Barclays has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange . According to a 2011 paper by Vitali et al. , Barclays was the most powerful transnational corporation in terms of ownership and thus corporate control over global financial stability and market competition , with Axa and State Street Corporation taking the 2nd and 3rd positions , respectively .
Birmingham Midshires is an online trading name of Bank of Scotland plc ( part of Lloyds Banking Group ) . It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park , Wolverhampton . It previously had 67 branches throughout England and Wales . Previously , Birmingham Midshires was a building society , known as the Birmingham Midshires Building Society .
Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley . The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society 's members , who swapped their nominal share of the building society for at least 250 shares of the newly formed bank . In 2008 , partly due to the credit crunch , the bank was nationalised and in effect split into two parts ; the mortgage book and investment portfolios remained with the now publicly owned Bradford & Bingley plc , and the deposits and branch network ( and a licence to use the B & B name for those aspects ) was sold to Abbey National , itself owned by the Spanish Santander Group . The branch network was rebranded Santander on 11 January 2010 and the Bradford & Bingley name now solely relates to the nationalised section of the bank .
Nationalization , or nationalisation , is the process of transforming private assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state . Nationalization usually refers to private assets or assets owned by lower levels of government , such as municipalities , being transferred to the state . The opposites of nationalization are privatization and demutualization . When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at a later stage , they are said to have undergone renationalization . Industries that are often subject to nationalization include telecommunications , electric power , fossil fuels , railways , airlines , iron ore , media , postal services , banks , and water . Nationalization may occur with or without compensation to the former owners . Nationalization is distinguished from property redistribution in that the government retains control of nationalized property . Some nationalizations take place when a government seizes property acquired illegally . For example , in 1945 the French government seized the car-makers Renault because its owners had collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of France . Nationalization is to be distinguished from socialization , which refers to the process of restructuring the economic framework , organizational structure , and institutions of an economy on a socialist basis . By contrast , nationalization does not necessarily imply social ownership and the restructuring of the economic system . By itself , nationalization has nothing to do with socialism , having been historically carried out for various different purposes under a wide variety of different political systems and economic systems .