Lombard Direct
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | Rotherham, South Yorkshire 1861 |
| Headquarters | Crawley, United Kingdom |
| Products | Hire purchase, Insurance, Leasing, Loans |
| Owner | The Royal Bank of Scotland Group |
| Website | www |
Lombard North Central, trading as Lombard, is a British-based finance company that specialise in asset based lending, founded in 1861. It is one of the largest finance houses in the United Kingdom and has been part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group since 2000.
Lombard started life with an investment in the railways of the mid-nineteenth century leasing wagons.
The North Central Wagon Co was set up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire in 1861. A group of astute investors see the business possibilities in leasing wagons to local railway companies, collieries and quarries. A black diamond representing a lump of coal was adopted as the company's symbol.
By 1900, nearly 25,000 railway wagons were on hire. After the First World War, the company began to move into financing road transport.
In 1928, Prudential Assurance Company and the financier Connop Guthrie bought out the company, seeing huge potential. Prudential remained a major shareholder for the next thirty years and Guthrie, an entrepreneur knighted in 1936, transformed the business through acquisition and organic growth.
After the Second World War and nationalisation of the railways, the company moved more into financing cars and consumer durables. During the early 1950s, it diversified by partnering with merchant bankers Seligman Brothers.
By 1958, banks began to acquire links with hire purchase companies, and National Provincial Bank bought out the company.
After the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank in 1968, North Central Finance - as it was then known - became a subsidiary of the new National Westminster Bank.
In 1970, Lombard Banking is taken over by National Westminster Bank. Lombard Banking from its origins in 1946 had developed hire purchase activities and had become one of the UK's largest finance houses. In 1971 Lombard Banking and North Central Finance are combined as Lombard North Central.
During the 1970s, Lombard’s 'big ticket' leasing for such items as aircraft, ships and petrochemical works grew. In 1979 Lombard North Central was licensed as a deposit taking institution under the new Banking Act.
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Wikipedia