High Street Bank

What Is a High Street Bank?

The term high street bank alludes to a large retail bank that has many branch areas. High street banks are major, boundless institutions like those found in the vitally commercial sector of a town or city. They offer regular banking services, for example, deposit accounts and credit facilities to consumers and businesses. Individuals generally allude to high street banks as such to separate them from different institutions, for example, investment banks. The term originated in the United Kingdom, where high street is normally utilized as the British equivalent of Main Street.

Understanding High Street Banks

As referenced above, high street is a term that originated in the United Kingdom and is regularly used to allude to the fundamental thoroughfare where primary business activities happen in urban communities and towns. It is much the same as the term Main Street utilized in North America. Banks that are found in these areas are, in this way, alluded to as high street banks.

High street banks are major commercial institutions that give retail banking services to people and small-to medium sized businesses. They acknowledge deposits, make withdrawals, give consumer investment and different savings vehicles, and offer their customers lending services, for example, overdraft protection, loans, lines of credit, and mortgages. Major high street banks in the U.K. incorporate Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), Lloyds Bank, and HSBC. These large high street banks offer both branch-based and online banking options.

Just like major American banks, high street banks offer their customers in-branch and online services.

Just like other retail banks across the world, high street banks are going under expanding pressure in light of the competition made by niche and challenger banks. While high street banks serve a scope of customers across various demographics, niche banks generally target a specific market or type of customer. For example, Zenith Bank is a Nigerian-based institution that has a presence in the U.K., furnishing customers with an association with the African financial markets.

Challenger banks, then again, try to contend with major high street institutions. A large number of these banks forego the traditional brick-and-mortar model and give an online-just presence. This helps cut down costs, allowing customers an opportunity to earn higher rates on their savings products, while paying lower interest on their debt. Particle Bank is an application based service that furnishes customers with savings and mortgage products.

Special Considerations

Some high street banks may likewise have other financial arms. For example, Barclays connects all the more extensively in investment banking, wealth management, and investment management notwithstanding the retail services it offers. The institution serves in excess of 24 million customers and clients across personal, wealth, and business units in north of 40 countries. Barclays' primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

RBS was founded as Bank of Scotland in 1727 and is headquarters in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. The bank gives a huge range of services to customers and clients including:

• savings, currency, fixed term and notice accounts
• support with cash management
• loans including personal, auto, debt consolidation, home improvement, small business, fixed and variable rate mortgage, and farming
• services like import and export, structured and asset, and invoice finance

Lloyds Bank is both a retail and commercial bank with branches in England and Wales. It is among one of the Big Four clearing banks in the country. Founded in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds expanded by acquiring numerous smaller financial institutions in the nineteenth and twentieth hundreds of years. In 1995, Lloyds merged with the Trustee Savings Bank. Together, they started to trade as Lloyds TSB Bank somewhere in the range of 1999 and 2013, before basically becoming Lloyds.

HSBC is another of the four major clearing banks in the United Kingdom. Perhaps of the largest international financial institution in the world, HSBC in aggregate comprises of 7,500 offices in north of 80 countries and domains worldwide. Holding a greater number of deposits than loans, many believe HSBC to be safer than other major banks. HSBC had the option to fund its operations and generally keep up with its share price all through the credit crunch.

Highlights

• A high street bank is a large retail bank with many branch areas.
• High street is the British equivalent of North America's Main Street.
• Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, and HSBC are well known high street banks.
• The term high street, which originated and is utilized in the United Kingdom, portrays the principal thoroughfare where major business is directed in urban areas and towns.