hight street banks

[mitrofan]

Hello,

Could anyone help me with the following sentence:

1st Credit is the market leader in debt purchase and outsourced debt collection services. We work with a number of clients including high street banks.

What are the high street banks? Big multinational banks?

Thanks a lot,
Marina

 

[languageGuy]

I think it is "High Street" banks -- banks that are located on High Street, a famous financial district.

 

[mitrofan]

The problem is I don´t have a clue where this 1st Credit is located, if the text is about a Spanish company "High Street" as a street makes no sense unless it is a bad translation of our "Gran Vía".
Tank you for your reply,
Marina

 

[mitrofan]

I meant Gran Via in Madrid

 

[languageGuy]

High Street is a very common British concept, like Main Street in the US, so maybe Gran Via would be a similar idea. Could the Spanish bank have branches in London?

 

[shamblesuk]

It refers to banks with branches rather than online/telephone banks.
Very common phrase in the UK.

 

[Aupick]

I would add to shamblesuk's answer that "High Street" as an epithet often means "typical", "common", "average" and whose name would be recognised by most members of the public. The idea is that you would find a branch in any town in the country, probably on the High Street (the name typically given to the main commercial street in British towns).

(In this case it excludes merchant banks, specialised banks, and small, obscure banks that only operate in certain areas, as well as online/telephone banks.)

 

[maxiogee]

I'm with Aupick. Coutts, the Queen's bankers would not be a high street bank - note the lower case, only thoroughfares actually named "High Street"
would merit the capitalisation.

 

[mitrofan]

Oh, thank you so much guys. That was really helpful!

Thanks a lot,
Marina