The news follows criticisms that there are insufficient skills and resources within the Civil Service to complete UKOnline by 2005.In October, Jim Norton, the former Downing Street e-business adviser and now head of e-commerce at the Institute of Directors, said he was “deeply worried about UKOnline”. Mr Norton warned that for the project to succeed, the Civil Service “will have to completely change its business model, even the way the officials are paid”.Under Mr McCartney’s initiative, due to go live in January, officials with an IT background will have a roving role to advise on technology projects and help change the bureaucratic nature of the Civil Service.The team will be allocated funds, and will hold seminars and forums as well as developing a new internal government database with information on technology suppliers. With day-to-day management being given to Tony Blair’s e-Envoy, Sprite builds on a programme launched in May to prevent millions of pounds being squandered on unreliable and over-budget public IT systems.On Thursday, Andrew Pinder, the acting e-Envoy, will issue a progress report on the Government’s internet initiatives. He is expected to say that the UKOnline portal, which went live two weeks ago in a rudimentary form, has received half a million visits.The news coincides with research by the Office of National Statistics which shows that one in five people who log on to the internet do so to access government information. In January the Government is expected to appoint a permanent e-Envoy after the last post-holder, Alex Allen, resigned for personal reasons.. 24 December 2000
24 December 2000
This was a year which began with a tug-of-war between Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland for control of NatWest. RBS won, a coup that was ex-pected to unleash a deluge of consolidation among UK banks.But everyone’s favourite takeover target, Abbey National, remains independent.
It is an apt summary of a year that promised to revolutionise the global financial services industry, yet failed to deliver.It all seemed so different in January. The creation of the “national champion” ready to lead the UK’s invasion of the European banking scene moved closer when RBS and NatWest linked The fall of NatWest meant nobody was safe. To satisfy the demands of shareholders for earnings growth, incumbents have had to respond by moving into new markets or cutting costs That means deals.So attention turned to Abbey. Barclays was linked, but chose to agree the £5.4bn takeover of Woolwich, which plugged the hole in its mortgage book HSBC was also touted but didn’t need the deal.
Lloyds TSB, the fallen star of the UK banking stage, did.But Ian Harley, chief executive of Abbey, was making contingency plans. Since the summer, he has been talking with Peter Burt, chief executive of Bank of Scotland (BoS). The combination of Abbey’s retail deposit base and BoS’s corporate business tells investors a story. But there is no arguing with the benefits of an Abbey/Lloyds combination – the chance to close branches. Lloyds TSB has done everything bar launch a formal bid.But Abbey will not remain independent for long. The smart money is on further deals like Barclays’ acquisition of Woolwich. The demutualisation of Bradford & Bingley has added to the list of mortgage banks waiting for the call.The UK sector can take pride in on a good year for shares, up 13 per cent.
On the Continent, banks are nursing losses after failed mergers and strategic confusion. Starring in the farce has been Dresdner Bank, which went from the sublime of a big deal with Deutsche to the ridic- ulous – another failed German tie-up, with Commerzbank. Ultimately, it was the future of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson which did for that deal.Dresdner rebounded into the arms of Commerzbank but couldn’t agree on which was worth more. So the trio was forced to look for distractions from the unprofitable domestic market; hence Dresdner’s acquisition of Wasserstein Per-ella, the US investment bank.The thunder of Germany’s three most aggressive banks was stolen by HypoVereinsbank, which took over Bank Austria. The landscape of European banking continues to be split along national boundaries.
