Britannia Building Society
Parent The Co-operative Bank | | |
Website | www |
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The Britannia Building Society was founded as the Leek & Moorlands Building Society in Leek in 1856. It expanded steadily as a regional society until the late 1950s when it began a major expansion drive, partly through branch openings but also some 55 acquisitions. The most substantial of these were the NALGO Building Society in 1960; the Westbourne Park in 1965 (becoming the Leek and Westbourne); and the Eastern Counties Building Society in 1974. The Society’s name was changed to the Britannia Building Society the following year.
Following the acquisition of the Bristol & West in 2005, the Britannia became the second-largest building society in the UK (based on total assets of £36.8 billion) at 31 December 2007.[1][2]
It merged with The Co-operative Banking Group in 2009, and was legally dissolved as a separate organisation on 1 August that year; it has remained as a trading name of The Co-operative Bank ever since.[3] In January 2013, the Co-operative announced that the brand would be phased out by the end of 2013,[4][5] and began rebranding branches under its own name.[6] However, the Co-operative Bank's own financial crisis resulted in the original plans being abandoned. Many Britannia branches were instead closed, and only a small number were retained and rebranded.
History
Early History and the Shaw era
The Leek & Moorlands Permanent Benefit Building Society was founded in the small Staffordshire town of
1930s and Hubert Newton
Four years after the death of Arthur Shaw, the directors decided to look outside the Society for fresh leadership. In 1933, the 29-year-old [Sir] Hubert Newton was recruited as Secretary; he became a director in 1938 and under various titles, ran the Society until he retired as Chairman in1985, a span of 52 years. Like Sir Harold Bellman of the
The Merger Era
Led by Hubert Newton, the Leek & Moorlands embarked on a sustained strategy of both branch openings and the acquisition of smaller building societies. Between 1956 and 1983 there were 55 separate “amalgamations” of varying sizes. Some of these were very small. For instance, in 1967 and 1968, the Leek bought two London societies: the Acme with assets of only £62,000 and the Greater London Permanent with £30,000 assets – barely enough to mortgage a couple of four bedroom detached houses. The first large acquisition came in 1960 with the
The Britannia
One year after the renaming of the Britannia, the number of individual shareholders was 550,000 compared with only 23,000 after the War. Albeit helped by substantial inflation, the value of total assets was £781m compared with only £11m in 1946. Of course, it was not the only society growing by acquisition and the Britannia was still ranked around number seven in the industry. The growth continued unabated and by1982 the number of members exceeded one million. In that year alone there were four acquisitions and 18 branches were opened, taking the total to 221. By then, however, the old guard was about to depart. The long serving managing director stood down in 1984 and Sir Hubert Newton retired as Chairman in 1985.[7] After that, there were only two more small acquisitions – the Blackheath in 1986 and the Mornington in 1991.[8]
Bristol & West
The last acquisition was the deposit base and branch network of former building society
Co-operative Group
On 21 January 2009, Co-operative Financial Services (later The Co-operative Banking Group) and Britannia Building Society proposed a merger,
Coincidentally, the largest remaining building society, Nationwide, a competitor with Britannia, was itself formed in 1884 as the Co-operative Permanent Building Society to provide services to members of the co-operative movement.[20]
Subsidiaries
The Britannia group of companies included the following principal subsidiary undertakings:
- Britannia International Limited[21]
- Britannia Treasury Services Ltd.[22]
- Britsafe Insurance Services (Guernsey) Ltd.[23]
- Platform Home Loans Ltd.,[24] subprime mortgage loans for the use of UK intermediaries (mortgage brokers) only
- Western Mortgage Services Ltd.[25]
A former member of the Building Societies Association and the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Britannia also subscribed to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Membership
In 1999, Britannia was one of seven building societies unsuccessfully targeted by the carpetbagger Michael Hardern.[26][27] To fight this threat to its mutual status, in 1998, the society announced that new members would in future be required to assign any future windfall payments to the Britannia Building Society Foundation, a charity set up for this purpose.[28]
On the merger with Co-operative Financial Services, members of the former Britannia Building Society became members of the Co-operative Group. The membership reward scheme was replaced with the Co-operative Membership scheme on 31 December 2009, when members began to earn dividend based on their account holding and borrowing with Britannia.
Affiliations
Britannia was official sponsor of
Britannia also maintained trade union affinity partnerships with
See also
References
- ^ Building Societies' Assets Archived March 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Building Societies Association, July 2008
- ^ Building Societies Database Archived March 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine KPMG Financial Services, August 2008
- ^ Registered in England and Wales No. 990937. The Co-operative Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, No. 121885
- ^ Co-operative Bank to close 37 branches BBC News, 24 January 2013
- ^ Britannia Building Society: Unions disappointed at name change BBC News, 25 January 2013
- ^ "Branch updates". The Co-operative Bank. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ^ a b c d Richard Redden, A History of the Britannia Building Society 1856-1985, 1985, London
- ^ BSA list of mergers https://www.bsa.org.uk/BSA/files/92/929551d7-df58-4495-ac6b-3b034d2c1c0f.pdf
- ^ Bank of Ireland to sell its Bristol & West branch network for £150 million Archived September 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland, 24 May 2005
- ^ Britannia and Co-operative Financial Services unveil plans for super-mutual[permanent dead link] Britannia Media Centre, 21 January 2009
- ^ CFS and Britannia to create 'super mutual' Archived January 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Co-operative News, 21 January 2009
- ^ Haurant, Sandra CFS joins Britannia to form 'super mutual' The Observer, 25 January 2009
- ^ "Britannia in Co-op merger talks". BBC News. 12 October 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ Hopkins, Kathryn Britannia and Co-op explore mutual tie-up The Guardian, 13 October 2008
- ^ Britannia members back super-mutual merger with The Co-operative Financial Services[permanent dead link] Britannia Media Centre, 29 April 2009
- ^ "Britannia/Co-op merger date set". BBC News. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ Sunderland, Ruth A mutual desire to be at the centre of banking The Observer, 5 April 2009
- ^ Merger Creates Powerful Force in Financial Services[permanent dead link] Britannia Media Centre, 3 August 2009
- ^ New-look CFS ready to take on the banks Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Co-operative News, 4 August 2009
- ^ Mansbridge, Albert Brick upon Brick: 50 years of the Co-operative Permanent Building Society London: JM Dent & Sons, 1934
- ^ Registered in the Isle of Man No. 50583. Licensed by the Manx Financial Supervision Commission to take deposits
- ^ Registered in England and Wales No. 03416197
- ^ Registered in Guernsey No. 30499. In Voluntary Liquidation[permanent dead link] La Gazette Officielle, JS980418/7/15
- ^ Registered in England and Wales No. 02334606
- ^ Registered in England and Wales No. 03191608
- ^ Jones, Rupert Britannia puts carpetbagger to ballot test The Guardian, 19 January 1999
- ^ "Britannia faces £3m ballot bill". BBC News. 22 April 1999. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ Britannia Building Society Archived July 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine The Sentinel, 4 February 2009
- ^ Gooderham, Dave (11 July 2012). "Updated: Britannia Stand becomes the East of England Co-operative Stand". East Anglian Daily Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
- ^ The Added Value of Membership Archived December 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine UNISONPlus Membership Services (retrieved 15 August 2009)