It has plans for an online share dealing service and unit trust supermarket.Egg is also looking at a radical revamp of its products, which could entail replacing the range with a series of linked products in an attempt to keep its lead in the field.Attempts by financial institutions to use the Net as a low-cost entry into other markets are still in their infancy, but most industry experts expect a dramatic rise in the number of Internet-based crossborder banks in the next few years.. However, the Pru has been careful to leave open its options on the choice of a future partner for an Internet operation.Egg, which has amassed pounds 7bn of deposits, recently offered a low interest- rate credit card tied to its own online shopping mall. Sir Peter Davis, chief executive, said: “We haven’t come to a conclusion. There is a discussion on whether the priority should be to increase our penetration in the UK or whether to go overseas while expanding in the UK.” But, he said: “Taking Egg overseas is clearly on the agenda.”
CNP, the French insurance group, which last week signed a reciprocal distribution deal with the Pru, has been following the development of Egg and would clearly like to be able to tap into its expertise. However, the question appears to more a matter of when rather than if to take Egg overseas. PRUDENTIAL, the life insurer, is close to a decision on plans to expand Egg, its direct banking operation, into continental Europe.The group is evaluating as to whether its priority should be to establish Egg further in the UK first.

“I am rocking on my heels at the money that seems to being offered to some people.”. The offer has upset staff elsewhere in the organisation who see it as a serious breach of the mutual ethos.Other financial institutions have also been affected, with Scottish Widows writing to their staff telling them that “the grass was not necessarily greener on the other side”.Neil Ross, who replaced Mr Spowart as chief executive of Standard Life Bank, said he expected more staff would be tempted to the new venture because salaries on offer were as much as 30 per cent higher than industry norms in the city. Within a few days of his resignation, a “dream team” of 11 senior staff had given notice at their current firms, followed over the next few weeks by more staff at all levels.In a bid to stop the losses, Standard Life Bank this month offered bonuses of up to a year’s wages – capped at pounds 50,000 – if staff stayed for 18 months, but another nine have since left. He declined to detail plans for new products, although he expects that the Internet part of the new company will account for 30 per cent of its business in the first year, rising rapidly as more and more people come online and become familiar with the technology.He said applications had been received from people working across the financial services sector in Edinburgh. Applications started from the day his resignation was announced last month, he said. “I took 74 phone calls at home that night, and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.

We have had more than 1,400 applications for the 600 jobs that will eventually be created.”Mr Spowart said he would like to think it was because of him that people wanted to work for the company, but believed it was because it offered the opportunity to be in at the start of something new and innovative. The new pounds 750m venture – code named Greenfield.co – is due to start operating next April.
Mr Spowart, 48, who led Standard Life Bank from nothing to a pounds 3bn company in two years and captured 17 per cent of the UK mortgage market since January, said all but two staff who have joined the firm had applied rather than been approached. Dozens of staff have quit since Standard Life, the mutually-owned Scottish insurance arm, made the offer in an effort to stop key staff being poached by Jim Spowart, the founder of Standard Life’s own successful banking operation, who left to set up a similar direct banking operation for Halifax. STAFF AT Standard Life Bank are shunning loyalty bonuses of up to pounds 50,000 being offered in an attempt prevent them been poached by Halifax’s new Internet-based bank being set up near Edinburgh. The company is expected to use the results to respond to last week’s regulatory review and to reassure the market that it is not planning to cut the dividend to meet the watchdog’s requirements.The management will also be quizzed on rumours that Severn Trent wants to expand its Biffa waste management system by buying rival UK Water.f.guerrera independent.co.uk.

Pre-tax profits should come in at pounds 171m slightly below last year’s pounds 176.5m. National Grid is still waiting for a settlement with the Massachusetts regulator which would allow the UK group to recover some of the money spent on the acquisition. The sale of the Grid’s 48-per-cent stake in the high-flying telecom group Energis will also entertain analysts.Water group Severn Trent will unleash its interims on Friday. News on further expansion will also be sought.A couple of utilities will also be in the spotlight. Tomorrow, the electricity group National Grid will report interim pre-tax profits of around pounds 252m compared with pounds 221m a year ago.Most of the analysts’ question will focus on the progress of the company’s $3.8bn purchase of US utility New England Electric System.

A partial float of the credit arm Experian will inevitably be on the agenda.As for Tesco, the UK’s leading supermarket will have to reassure investors that the price war launched by Wal-Mart/Asda has not affected sales and margins. Home shopping is set to have continued to slump under the heavy discounting of its high street rivals. However, Argos should have fared better, thanks to the introduction of a single catalogue across the whole chain.Chairman Lord Wolfson and chief executive designate John Peace will be asked what they intend to do to reverse the collapse in the share price, which has lost more than 50 per cent over the past 12 months. This disappointing performance, especially from the mail-order division, should translate in pre-tax profits of pounds 175m compared with pounds 190.8m last year The current trading statement will be mixed.