Northern Rock has named a new chief executive to lead the government funded bank forwards.
Gary Hoffman, previously the vice chairman at Barclays has taken on the role, replacing Andy Kuipers who had been at the bank for the last 20 years. Mr Hoffman will officially take over at the end of August and is very excited to be given the task of heading up Northern Rock.
When Mr Kuipers, the last person from the previous board remaining, leaves it will signify a new start for the Northern Rock, bringing an optimism for customers, staff and investors that the future will be better than the recent past.
The Abbey National has been speaking to families in the UK and found them cutting their holiday budgets so they can allocate more of their money to day to day living expenses.
Compared with last year the average family spends around GBP175 less than they were doing on a holiday, prompted in no small part by the expectation of fuel and food bills going up by around 60 percent compared with last year. Other areas of family life are also seeing cuts said the Abbey National, including childcare, sports, hobbies and toys.
It is a natural stance to take said the Abbey National, since parents try and manage their finances with common sense, knowing that their family depend on them.
The German retail banking arm of Citibank, part of the Citigroup financial giant, saw the number of interested German parties drop to one when Commerzbank withdrew from the race.
There is interest from outside Germany still, but within the borders of the country only Deutsche Bank remains an interested party. A couple of other big European players are looking at Citibank in Germany with interest, with a move expected before the end of the month. It continues what has been a turbulent time in the German banking market as a number of organisations have changed hands recently.
With around 3.25 million customers the German Citibank is expecting offers in the region of EUR4 to EUR5 billion, especially as it runs profitably and is one of the leaders in consumer financing, generating handsome returns.
