ONE good thing to come of Standard Life's sale of its Bank of Scotland stake is that the bank will have to emerge from the shell of its major shareholder and be more communicative.
With a friendly 32% shareholder solidly behind it, Bank of Scotland has felt less need to do the round of meetings with institutions and briefings most public company directors no doubt find tedious. Now it recognises it will have to become more open with the investment community.
The bank is highly visible at home but it has virtually no retail exposure in England, where its 23 branches do not go out of their way to attract individual customers.
So the group is not as well-known as it ought to be, which is unfortunate because it has a good story to tell. Perhaps the most impressive figure it will show institutions is the steady rise in its share of UK sterling advances since 1980. This consistent performance has much to do with the long experience of the executive directors.
Unlike others in the sector, it has not gone in for recruiting corporate high fliers to the boardroom.
Given the track record, it is a pity the group is not going to market the shares to small investors. This would have been more costly and bothersome - these days they expect incentives such as discounts - but the group has a ready-made marketing base and local investors could be a help in fighting off a predator.
Now that it is to lose its major shareholder, it will be more vulnerable as it is a small player in global terms.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article