Say yes to the TSB
SO WHAT does the Abbey do for an encore? It is something to have found a way out of the regulatory maze planted by Michael Bridgman at the Building Societies Commission — even if he thinks that the Abbey went through some of the hedges rather than round them — and to become a recognised bank. Now the Abbey must beware the bad example set by the Trustee Savings Bank. Having come to market, the TSB was left with more capital than it needed — and went off to waste its substance on riotous acquisitions. A merchant bank? With that sort of classy accessory, we won't look like a dowdy northern savings bank any more.... That dowdy but basic business turns out to have needed money and, even more, manage- ment. The seven fat years in personal and small-business banking are over. The TSB is visibly suffering as times get harder, with the new chairman, Sir Nicholas Goodison, late of the Stock Exchange, breathing gloom and economising on directors. The shares have drifted down to within a few pence of the original offer price (that was a sure thing, too, in its day) and begin to look like a sitting target for a bid — if a fit and proper bidder turns up. Who fitter or properer than the Abbey? Taking over the TSB would produce a balanced national network such as the Big Four might envy. The Abbey will never have a better chance to be a very Big and formidable Fifth.
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