Prepared with AI assistance and checked against official sources by the PensionHunter team.
The City's vanished banks: where their London pensions went
The banks people remember from the City of London in the 1980s and 1990s have mostly gone. They were bought, merged, renamed or wound up. Their pension schemes usually were not. If you worked for one of them in London, a pension in your name very likely still exists, under a name you would not guess.
The old names, A to Z
| Old name | What happened, in general terms | Our page |
|---|---|---|
| Abbey National | Became a plc in 1989, part of Grupo Santander from 12 November 2004 | Abbey National |
| Alliance & Leicester | Became a plc on 21 April 1997, acquired by Banco Santander on 10 October 2008 | Alliance & Leicester |
| Bank Mees & Hope | Formed in 1975, later became MeesPierson | MeesPierson |
| Bank of Scotland | Incorporated by an Act of 1695, part of HBOS, acquired with HBOS on 16 January 2009 | Halifax and HBOS |
| Barclays Bank DCO | Renamed Barclays Bank International in 1971 | Barclays Bank International |
| Barclays Bank International | Name used from 1971, a public company from 1985 | Barclays Bank International |
| Barclays de Zoete Wedd | Formed in 1986, wound back from October 1997 | BZW |
| Barings | In administration in late February 1995, most of the business sold to ING | Barings |
| Bradford & Bingley | Shares passed to the Treasury Solicitor on 29 September 2008 | Bradford & Bingley |
| BZW | The short name of Barclays de Zoete Wedd | BZW |
| Cazenove | Joint venture with J.P. Morgan from 2005, remaining interest purchased on 4 January 2010 | Cazenove |
| Chartered Bank | Merged with the Standard Bank in 1969 to form Standard Chartered | Standard Chartered |
| Clydesdale Bank | Bought by National Australia Bank in 1987, Yorkshire Bank fused into it under a 2001 Act | Clydesdale Bank or Yorkshire Bank |
| County Bank | Created NatWest Investment Bank by acquiring stock-broking and jobbing firms | NatWest |
| Credit Suisse | Taken over by UBS, completed 12 June 2023 | Credit Suisse |
| Credit Suisse First Boston | The name of Credit Suisse's investment bank | Credit Suisse |
| Deutsche Morgan Grenfell | The name Deutsche Bank Group gave its global investment banking from 1995 | Morgan Grenfell |
| Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette | Acquired by Credit Suisse Group on 3 November 2000 | Credit Suisse |
| Dresdner Kleinwort | A later name of the bank that bought Kleinwort Benson | Kleinwort Benson |
| Flemings | Robert Fleming Holdings, acquired by Chase on 1 August 2000 | Flemings |
| Halifax | Became Halifax plc on 2 June 1997 | Halifax and HBOS |
| Hambros Bank | Sale to Société Générale not opposed by the European Commission on 6 February 1998 | Hambros Bank |
| HBOS | Acquired by Lloyds TSB Group plc, completed 16 January 2009 | Halifax and HBOS |
| Heritable Bank | Deposit liabilities moved by a Treasury Order of 7 October 2008 | Heritable Bank |
| Hill Samuel | Business moved in part to TSB Bank plc in 1994 and to Lloyds Bank Plc under a 1998 Act | Hill Samuel |
| Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander | Edge deposit liabilities moved by a Treasury Order of 8 October 2008 | Singer & Friedlander |
| Kleinwort Benson | Passed to Dresdner Bank by July 1995 | Kleinwort Benson |
| Lehman Brothers | London company in administration from 15 September 2008 | Lehman Brothers |
| MeesPierson | Dutch merchant bank with a London operation in the 1990s | MeesPierson |
| Mercury Asset Management | Bought by Merrill Lynch, recorded at the end of 1997 | Merrill Lynch |
| Merrill Lynch | Bought by Bank of America, completed 1 January 2009 | Merrill Lynch |
| Midland Bank | Fully owned by HSBC from 1992, renamed HSBC Bank plc in 1999 | Midland Bank |
| Morgan Grenfell | Taken over by Deutsche Bank, completed in 1989 | Morgan Grenfell |
| National Westminster Bank | Began trading 1 January 1970, acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 2000 | NatWest |
| Northern Rock | In temporary public ownership from 22 February 2008, split on 1 January 2010 | Northern Rock |
| Prudential | M&G plc demerged on 21 October 2019 | Prudential |
| Reuters | Acquired by Thomson Reuters on 17 April 2008 | Reuters |
| S.G. Warburg | Investment bank bought by Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995 | S.G. Warburg |
| Salomon Brothers | Merged into Travelers on 28 November 1997, Citigroup from 8 October 1998 | Salomon Brothers |
| Schroders investment bank | Sold in 2000, the purchase completed on 1 May 2000 | Schroders investment bank |
| Shearson Lehman | An earlier name of Lehman Brothers' London company | Lehman Brothers |
| Singer & Friedlander | Kaupthing's anticipated purchase cleared by the Office of Fair Trading on 2 June 2005 | Singer & Friedlander |
| Smith New Court | Bought by Merrill Lynch in 1995 | Merrill Lynch |
| Standard Chartered | Formed by the merger of two banks in 1969 | Standard Chartered |
| Swiss Bank Corporation | Merged with Union Bank of Switzerland to form UBS on 29 June 1998 | S.G. Warburg |
| TSB | Trustee savings banks reorganised into companies by an Act of 1985 | TSB |
| Union Bank of Switzerland | Merged with Swiss Bank Corporation to form UBS on 29 June 1998 | S.G. Warburg |
| Warburg Dillon Read | The investment bank's name after 1997, later UBS Warburg | S.G. Warburg |
| Woolwich | Became a plc in 1997, share capital transferred to Barclays on 25 October 2000 | Woolwich |
| Yorkshire Bank | Bought by National Australia Bank in 1990, fused into Clydesdale Bank PLC under a 2001 Act | Clydesdale Bank or Yorkshire Bank |
Sources: each row is sourced on its bank's page, with the date we read it. We add banks to this list in batches.
Why these pensions are hard to find
The pensions followed the businesses, not the brass plates. Schemes changed their names several times, older records point to administrators that no longer exist, and some pensions moved to an insurer. The name on your payslip is rarely the name on the record today.
Do I have a pension from my City years?
It depends first on when you left. The law set a minimum, and a scheme could always be more generous than the law.
| You left | What the law required for a preserved pension |
|---|---|
| Before 6 April 1975 | No legal minimum. The scheme's own rules decided. |
| 6 April 1975 to 31 December 1985 | Aged 26 or over, with at least 5 years' qualifying service |
| 1 January 1986 to 5 April 1988 | At least 5 years' qualifying service, at any age |
| From 6 April 1988 | At least 2 years' qualifying service |
| From 1 October 2015, money purchase only | At least 30 days' qualifying service, where that service began on or after 1 October 2015 |
If you left after 6 April 1988 with 2 years or more of service, you very likely have a preserved pension, if you were in the scheme.
Sources: the age 26 and 5 year rule, Social Security Act 1973, Schedule 16, paragraph 6(1), read 20 October 2026, in force from 6 April 1975 (Social Security Act 1973 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1973, read 20 October 2026). The age condition ended on 1 January 1986 (Social Security Act 1985, section 1, read 20 October 2026, and Social Security Act 1985 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1985, read 20 October 2026). Five years became two with effect from 6 April 1988 (Social Security Act 1973, Schedule 16 as amended, note on the Social Security Act 1986, section 10, read 20 October 2026). Two years today, and 30 days for money purchase service that began on or after 1 October 2015 (Pension Schemes Act 1993, section 71, read 20 October 2026).
The free official route comes first
The UK government's free Pension Tracing Service gives you contact details for a workplace pension scheme from the name of an employer. It has a limit, in its own words: "This service will not tell you whether you have a pension, or what its value is." (Source: GOV.UK, Find pension contact details, read 20 October 2026.)
With an old City bank, the name is the hard part. The name on your payslip is rarely the name on the record today, and a search for the wrong name finds the wrong scheme or nothing you recognise. Our free pension check starts from your own work history.
Which page is mine?
- Merrill Lynch
- Lehman Brothers
- Salomon Brothers
- S.G. Warburg
- Credit Suisse
- MeesPierson
- Midland Bank
- Barclays Bank International
- BZW
- Barings
- Abbey National
- Kleinwort Benson
- Morgan Grenfell
- Schroders investment bank
- Flemings
- Northern Rock
- NatWest
- Halifax and HBOS
- Woolwich
- Hill Samuel
- Hambros Bank
- Cazenove
- Alliance & Leicester
- Bradford & Bingley
- TSB
- Reuters
- Clydesdale Bank or Yorkshire Bank
- Prudential
- Singer & Friedlander
- Heritable Bank
- Standard Chartered
Each page tells the bank's story, sets out who is affected and offers the report that names who holds your pension today.
Find a former colleague or post a reunion
Coming soon: a notice board for people who worked at the same bank. Until it opens, the free check is the quickest way to see where a pension in your name may sit.
Start the free checkTry the alternative first
AI can tell you what a pension is. It cannot tell you that you have one. It is genuinely good at explaining how a rule works, and if that is all you needed, you have saved yourself a fee.
Then ask it which scheme holds your money and who administers it today, and ask it for the source and the date it checked. Why that is where it ends
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. PensionHunter is not regulated by the FCA or any equivalent financial regulator. Identification and research only. No advice, no commission, we never hold your money. If you require financial advice about your pension please consult a qualified independent financial adviser.
We list who holds pension records here: United Kingdom pension administrators and registers.
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