I popped into the British Banker’s Association (BBA) last week and found that they publish a nice long list of statistics about our industry so, in yet another in the numbers series, here’s the low-down on the UK banking sector.
At the end of 2006, there were:
- over 325 banks in the UK;
- 161 UK banks; and
- 176 branches of foreign banks, representing 60 nationalities.
They collectively operate:
- 130 million personal accounts;
- 10 million mortgages; and
- 8 million personal loans.
They hold
- 25% of all European assets; which is over
- £6.3 trillion of assets; with
- £600 billion of foreign exchange passed through London every year.
Over 95% of the UK population has a bank account with
- £500 billion in total personal deposits; of which
- £150 billion is withdrawn annually; of which
- £2.5 billion of cash withdrawals are made each year;
- from over 30,000 ATMs;
- representing a total of 7 billion transactions a year.
Banking is the fastest growing business sector in the UK:
- employing over half a million people;
- indirectly creating jobs for over 4 million people;
- contributing £50 billion to the UK economy;
- paying £9 billion a year in tax; which represents
- a quarter of all corporation tax in the UK; and
- contributing 10% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product.
And
large banks donate over £100 million a year to charities and community
initiatives, making them one of the largest charity donors in the UK.
For example, the top 7 UK charity givers in 2003/04 were:
- Glaxo Smith Kline
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- BP
- HSBC
- Barclays
- Lloyds TSB
- Northern Rock
… it just goes to prove why the British media love our banks so much!