The TSB started out as a set of independent mutual organisations that provided savings account for people who would not otherwise have any sort of banking service.
There was active encouragement from the government to amalgamate and provide additional services, such as loans, to challenge the market dominance of the traditional banks (in the same way that building societies were encourage to demutualise) and the TSB was ultimately turned into a commercial organisation and sold off.
Surprise, surprise, turn a dull but worthy organisation into a clone of an existing financial institution and it starts to behave exactly like the kind of financial institution it was supposed to challenge. Roll on to the financial crisis and the government was forced to buy back the bank it had previously been desperate to sell off.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
