Formed as the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society in 1853 and merged with Halifax Equitable Building Society in 1928, the renamed Halifax Building Society was five times larger than its closest rival and had an asset of £47m. It was the largest building society in the UK and entered into banking business by offering current accounts and credit cards in the 20th century. After the 1986 Act of demutualization of building societies, the new bank Halifax plc was the fifth largest in the country in terms of market capitalization and it established Intelligent Finance, a telephone and internet based banking in 2000. In the year of 2001, the UK banking market experienced the wave of consolidation and it was the time that Halifax had a merger with Bank of Scotland at £10.8 billion and the new group was now named as Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). In Scotland the Halifax brand name is associated with mortgages and saving products only while the Bank of Scotland brand name is used for business banking in the UK. As per the HBOS Group Reorganization Act 2006, the assets and liabilities of Halifax plc will be transferred to Bank of Scotland plc under the brand name of Halifax plc, which will no longer be a corporate entity.
As the best mortgage lender in the UK, the Halifax plc offers a number of services both in mortgage and in banking. The corporate portal offers a bunch of services online and the browsers can get budget calculator, jargon buster and mortgage calculator while choosing the right mortgage through internet. The online portal also helps people with advices on mortgages, insurance, personal accounts and shares. The financial professionals even catch the clients in live webchat with relevant advices. It has 330 local branches spread in England, Wales and Northern Ireland offering various services on mortgage. Halifax plc does not offer Buy to let mortgage or offset mortgages. The divisions of Halifax plc, Birmingham Midshires and Intelligent Finance offers buy to let and offset mortgage respectively. The Halifax plc also takes care of the refinancing issues helping in all paperwork and legal issues.
The Halifax plc is now also into bank accounts, credit card loans, personal loans and insurance. It is offering a number of personal banking products as well as business banking products. Halifax plc also gives information on shares, managed funds and other investment options with the bank. The online and telephonic banking also make the banking dealings easy with Halifax plc.
