Egg plc is a British internet bank, with its headquarters in Derby in England. Formerly called, Prudential Banking plc, Egg was established in 1996, and is now the world's largest "pure" internet bank in that it is only possible to operate an Egg account over the internet. Egg specialises in savings and credit cards.

History

Egg was established as a division of the Prudential plc, the UK's life assurance company. Prudential Banking was involved in direct selling of savings products. In 1998, the division was renamed Egg and relaunched as the UK's first internet bank. The service gained in popularity, and soon the bank had more than 2 million customers. In 2000, Prudential cashed in on its stake and floated 21% of the company on the London Stock Exchange, retaining a 79% stake.

La Carte Egg

Capitalising on its British success, Egg launched in France in 2002. However, despite investing heavily in the French market, the services were never popular with the French, who generally hold fewer credit cards than the British. In 2004, Egg decided to close its French operations, selling the business to ING of the Netherlands.

Current position

In 2003, the Prudential announced its intention to sell its remaining stake in Egg to a third party. Despite rumours of interest from the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, no formal offers were received, and Prudential dropped its plans in 2004.

The company has however reported profits for its UK division, although these were wiped out by losses in France.

See also

• Security First Network Bank

External links

• Egg plc's home page