History of Alliance and Leicester

Alliance and Leicester started off life back in 1853 as the Leicester Permanent Building Society. In 1985 the Alliance building society merged with the Leicester building society becoming the Alliance and Leicester building society on the 01/10/1985. In 1989 Alliance and Leicester started negotiating to buy Girobank and on the 02/07/1990 girobank became a part of Alliance and Leicester. The next big milestone was the conversion from being a building society into a bank and on the 21/04/1997 Alliance and Leicester joined the UK stock market.     The last big news was a result of the credit crunch which saw Alliance and Leicester shareholders vote and agree to be taken over by the Spanish banking group Santander in october 2008. At the time some viewed the price shareholders got as on the low side but with the subsequent further deterioration in the credit markets maybe was not such a bad deal for the staff and shareholders alike to be part of a larger banking group.

Facts and Figures

Before the take over by Banco Santander had approx 3.5% of the UK mortgage market.   As of 31/12/2007 (pre-takeover) 5.5 million personal customers   23.3 billion of personal customers deposits   42.8 billion of secured mortgage loans   3.7 billion of unsecured loans

Alliance and Leicester Savings Accounts Products

Alliance and Leicester provides a range of products including, current accounts, credit cards, savings accounts, mortgages, cheap personal loans, internet banking, billpay and business banking. The Alliance and Leicester Savings Accounts include Alliance and Leicester Easy Access Alliance and Leicster Internet Saver  Alliance and Leicester ISA Alliance and Leicester Term or Fixed Rate Bonds Best Buys @ 01/10/2009 A&L eSaver 3.00% High savings rate for disciplined savers and internet applications available

Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct Current Account

The Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct Current Account is currently offering 6% interest on all balances up to £2,500 24 hour servicing by phone and internet 0% AER typical overdraft for new customers for first 12 months.