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33-511: The two-level centre is located adjacent to Market Square, and is owned by Evolve Estates , after purchasing the centre from Legal & General in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. In 2014 it underwent a £3 million refurbishment. The Grosvenor Centre is located on the site of a previous medieval monastery in the centre of Northampton. The centre is linked to both the Market Square and Abington Street. It has its own multi-storey car park and

66-687: A sub-prime credit history who have been declined for credit from mainstream lenders. It also offers fixed-rate and notice savings accounts under the trading name Vanquis Savings. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange . The company was established in Bradford in 1880 by Joshua Kelley Waddilove to provide affordable credit to families in West Yorkshire as the Provident Clothing and Supply Company. The Company

99-762: A 46.5% stake in housebuilder Cala Homes in March 2013, taking full control of the company five years later. In parallel, in 2015, Legal & General launched a modular homes operation, L&G Modular Homes, opening a factory in Sherburn-in-Elmet , near Selby in Yorkshire. Production was halted in May 2023, with L&G blaming planning delays and the COVID-19 pandemic for its failure to grow its sales pipeline; 450 factory workers faced being made redundant. By

132-610: A day, following its second profit warning in two months, the replacement of its chief executive by Manjit Wolstenholme, cancellation of a shareholder dividend and a warning that the full-year dividend might also be cancelled, and the announcement of an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority . The share price, which had been £32 in April 2017, was £8.50 by the first week of October 2017. In March 2021, Provident Financial announced it intended to introduce

165-512: A holding company in 1981, and bought Government Employees Life Insurance Company (GELICO) and its NY affiliate. The GELICO name changed to Banner in 1983. William Penn was purchased by Legal & General Group Plc as a wholly owned subsidiary of Banner Life Insurance Company in 1989. It bought the Dutch branch of Unlike Assurance Group and also set up business in France during the 1980s. Following

198-459: A new separate public company was formed called International Personal Finance . This company then held all of Provident Financial's ex-non-UK operations, with the exception of Ireland. It also sold the motor insurance business. In 2013, Provident Financial launched its online short-term loan Satsuma Loans . In 2014, Moneybarn was acquired by Provident Financial plc, joining the home credit and online credit businesses and Vanquis Bank to become

231-712: A pensions buyout company, for £151 million. In 2014, there was a "shock" announcement that Legal & General was leaving as one of the Association of British Insurers (ABI)'s around 300 corporate members, due to ABI's "decision to transfer its investment business to the Investment Management Association ." In the same year, the group disposed of its estate agency business, Xperience, which comprised 89 offices and 75 franchisees, trading as CJ Hole, Ellis and Co, Parkers and Whitegates, to Martin & Co for £6 million. Legal & General took

264-568: A period of significant growth in the business. He was followed by Tim Breedon, who became CEO in January 2006. After that Sir Nigel Wilson (the previous CFO) became group chief executive on 30 June 2012, and was succeeded by António Simões in 2023. Provident Financial Vanquis Banking Group , formerly Provident Financial plc , is a British bank headquartered in Bradford , England which specialises in credit cards, loans and consumer vehicle finance. It primarily services customers with

297-571: A period of uncertainty for the staff at Kingswood, it was announced that the site would shut much earlier, in 2018. The previous Legal & General logo incorporates the image of the Temple Bar (which is still used in the logo of the company's social and athletic committee), and the founding date. The umbrella logo used today was introduced by former Chief Press Officer Gordon Macdonald in June 1984. Between 1991 and 1994, Legal and General sponsored

330-526: A provider of Self Invested Pension products, sold Suffolk Life in 2016 and also outsourced its IT development areas to TCS ( Tata Consultancy Services ). The company formed a joint venture with two Indian public sector banks, Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank to launch IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company in India in 2009 and outsourced some IT areas to IBM in October 2010. In 2013 the company bought Lucida Life,

363-515: A scheme of arrangement, under which £50 million would be set aside for compensation payments for unresolved claims made before 17 December 2020. In December 2021, Provident Financial's doorstep lending business was placed into a managed orderly run-off. The business was closed down on 31 December 2021. In January 2023, it was announced that the company would be rebranded from "Provident Financial" to "Vanquis Banking Group". It changed its name accordingly on 2 March 2023. In 2011, Vanquis Bank

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396-506: A socially-conscious actuary , was CEO of Legal & General, having previously headed its Australian operation. Peet helped the campaign for Thalidomide children, Legal & General then owning a large bloc of shares (3.5 million) in Scottish drinks and pharmaceutical company Distillers . Sir David Prosser (1944–2020) was the CEO from 1991 to 2005 and is credited with overseeing

429-553: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Legal %26 General Legal & General Group plc , commonly known as Legal & General , is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London , England. Its products and services include investment management , lifetime mortgages (a form of equity release ), pensions , annuities, and life assurance . As of January 2020, it no longer provides general insurance following

462-817: The Regional Weather Forecasts for the ITV network and in 1999, Legal & General announced plans, which never came to fruition, to merge its business with National Westminster Bank to form the first ' bancassurance ' company in the UK. The company sold the Legal & General Bank and Legal & General Mortgage Services to Northern Rock in 2003 and sold its stake in Gresham Insurance , its joint venture with Barclays Bank , to Barclays in 2005. In 2008 Legal & General bought Suffolk Life ,

495-493: The Visa brand. Vanquis Bank specialised in credit cards. In 2005, Provident Financial closed its Yes Car Credit business, which had sold second-hand vehicles to customers with problematic credit histories. The company had been subject to bad publicity, including a TV investigation into its selling practices, pressurisation of staff, unreliable vehicles and debt collection methods. In 2007, it demerged its international business, and

528-437: The basis for the site, was attended by the novelist Vera Brittain , mother of the politician Shirley Williams . The Kingswood site, which included sports fields, a park, a large and luxurious swimming pool, a canteen and a simulacrum of an English pub , among other facilities, was expanded in the 1950s and again in the 1980s. In 2015, it was announced that the headquarters would close "potentially before 2025". In fact, after

561-452: The company acquired a 13% investment in the electric vehicle charging point operator, Pod Point. In 2023, the company assumed full liability for the entire pension scheme of Boots through a buy-in arrangement. The company offers a wide range of products in addition to its direct sales service and brokerage agreements with numerous tied agents and independent financial advisers . In the 1970s and early 1980s, Ron Peet (1925–2020),

594-591: The company agreed the sale of its General Insurance division, Legal & General Insurance, to Allianz Insurance , the latter making a simultaneous purchase of the remaining 51% share of Liverpool Victoria General Insurance (LV=) of which it already owned 49%. The acquisition took effect on 1 January 2020, at which time Legal & General Insurance's holding company was renamed Fairmead Insurance. The existing policies will be merged into Allianz Insurance's subsidiary LV= under one expanded business. Legal & General's Birmingham office became an LV= site. Also in 2019,

627-626: The end of 1987, the chain totaled 95 branches of which 17 were franchised, rising to 107 branches (27 franchised) by the end of the following year. The chain was sold for £19 million in December 1989 to Legal & General . In 2002, Provident Financial formed Vanquis Bank, with a full banking licence from the FSA, a consumer credit licence with the Office of Fair Trading and a licence from Visa International to operate and issue credit cards under

660-534: The general public but with share ownership restricted to those in the legal profession. The group expanded in the UK and soon began to acquire overseas life assurance companies, purchasing a pensions business from the Metropolitan Life Assurance Company of New York in the 1930s. The society became a wholly owned division of Legal & General Group plc in the 1970s. Legal & General Group, formed Legal & General America as

693-500: The implications of the contracts they were entering into. The company were criticised by the Citizen's Advice Bureau , whose chief executive told Panorama , "I call into question...the motivation to keep exploiting people who clearly can't be held responsible for their own decisions in that situation." In 2018, Vanquis Bank was fined £2 million for failing to properly disclose charges on one of its popular repayment plans. Vanquis

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726-468: The market place included seven day opening, computerised mailing lists, a "No Sale – No Fee" guarantee and an all include fixed fee. By late 1985 there were 60 branches of the chain, expanding with a move into the East Midlands in 1986 to 70 branches (the 10 in the East Midlands were acquisitions which had trade during 1986 under their former names. As the chain reached its 10th anniversary towards

759-854: The proposed closure of the adjacent Greyfriars bus station , the centre was due to expand over the reclaimed site. However, this proposal was terminated on the 14 July 2014, and the bus station site given back to Northampton Borough Council . L&G then announced a £3 million refurbishment of the centre, due for completion in September 2014, involving new entrance canopies, refurbished toilets, updated ceilings, lighting, flooring, lifts and signage. The Grosvenor Centre spans over 320,000 square foot of retail, food and leisure space. The centre has more than 50 shops and eateries with an individual mix of stores and high street brands. 52°14′20″N 0°53′43″W  /  52.2389°N 0.8953°W  / 52.2389; -0.8953 This retail business article

792-596: The sale of Legal & General Insurance to Allianz . It has operations in the United Kingdom and United States, with investment management businesses in the Gulf , Europe and Asia. Legal & General is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), the asset management arm of L&G, is the 10th largest investment management firm in

825-479: The third leg of the group. The Central Bank of Ireland in late 2014 fined and reprimanded Provident Financial for flagrant breaches of the regulatory requirements aimed at protecting Irish consumers. The five whistleblowers who reported the law breaking were then sacked by Provident, which led to the matter being raised in Dáil Éireann . On 22 August 2017, Provident Financial lost two-thirds of its stock value in

858-482: The time it had closed, the enterprise incurred total losses over seven years of £295m - a figure revised upwards to £359m in September 2024. In March 2024, Legal & General began to exit the housing market, appointing Rothschild & Co to handle the sale of Cala Homes, valued at around £750m. In 2022, Cala had sold 3,000 homes and employed 1,300 staff. In May 2024, Persimmon , Taylor Wimpey and Avant Homes were considering bids, but in September 2024, Cala Homes

891-625: The trend in the United Kingdom at the time of financial institutions entering the estate agency sector, Legal & General purchased Whitegates Estate Agency from Provident Financial Group plc for £19 million in December 1989. In the 1940s the main office of Legal & General was moved from Temple Bar House in the City of London to a remodelled former girls' school in leafy Kingswood , Surrey , save for some top management functions which remained in London. The girls' school (St. Monica's), which formed

924-612: The world by AUM. It is also the second largest institutional investment management firm in Europe (after BlackRock ). Legal & General was formed by Sergeant John Adams and five other lawyers in June 1836 in a Chancery Lane coffee shop. Originally called the New Law Life Assurance Society , the society was restricted to those in the legal profession. The name was changed to Legal & General Life Assurance Society to reflect that policies were available to

957-467: Was also forced to pay £169 million back in compensation to its customers. The main activity is the credit card business, Vanquis Bank, which was set up by Provident Financial in 2002. The customer services department moved to a new call centre in part of what used to be the Naval Dockyards at Chatham in 2008. Vanquis Bank offer a range of cards depending on the credit circumstances of

990-481: Was criticised for offering repayment option plans to their credit card customers, a form of insurance some consumer sites referred to as the 'new payment protection insurance (PPI)'. In 2012, the company was the subject of an episode of the BBC documentary series Panorama , which alleged that the company were breaching Office of Fair Trading guidelines by offering loans to vulnerable people who might not have understood

1023-432: Was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962. Provident Financial were one of the first financial institutions to enter into estate agency in the UK, establishing Whitegate Estate Agency in two cities 1978, and by the end of the year was operating in eight Yorkshire towns. The chain grew to 19 branches by the end of 1979, 22 branches by the end of 1980 and 23 branches by the end of 1982. Innovations brought to

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1056-532: Was formerly connected to the Greyfriars bus station . The North Gate bus station is just west of the shopping centre. As of January 2023 stores located in the Grosvenor Centre include: Boots , Primark , The Entertainer , W H Smith , Superdrug , Superdry and Next . House of Fraser, unable to commit to a long-term lease, closed in March 2014, and was replaced by Next and Primark . With

1089-484: Was sold to its previous owner Patron Capital and investment firm Sixth Street Partners for £1.35bn. In 2014, the company formed Legal & General Reinsurance, a Bermudian-based reinsurance company. Legal & General Re completed its maiden external transaction in the Dutch market in cooperation with ASR in December 2015. In May 2016 Legal & General Assurance in the UK bought the £3 billion UK annuity portfolio of Aegon . In 2019 following earlier speculation,

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