One personal and business bank account provider has kept busy recently with both the acquisition of the brand, savings accounts, and IT consultant mortgages from Egg, but also its merger with Norwich & Peterborough.
Yorkshire Building Society’s merger with N&P was approved this past August at a special general meeting of its members. Meanwhile, the Egg deal sees the building society absorbing a £400 million mortgage book and a £2.1 billion savings book into their growing portfolio.
Consumers who prefer to stay out of the way of High Street banks such as Lloyds TSB may not be terribly enthused with Yorkshire, as its aggressive acquisitions trend has seen it buy out the Norwich, Chelsea, and Barnsley building societies over the past few years. With Egg now underneath the Yorkshire aegis, the BS is now the second biggest of its kind, with Nationwide the market leader for building societies
What this means for mortgage holders and savers is promising for those who are transferring, as the economies of scale from Yorkshire will lead to immediate gains. Borrowers with Egg stand to win big, as their 6 per cent or 5.29 per cent variable rates have dropped to match the 4.99 per cent standard Yorkshire variable rate.
Yorkshire BS chief executive, Iain Cornish, remarked that acquiring the Egg savings and mortgage book increases the scale of the building society’s business in addition to strengthening the Society’s long term position Combining Egg and Yorkshire product capabilities, said Mr Cornish, will allow Yorkshire to further innovate and offer more extensive and varied product ranges, which will allow the building society to remain competitive.