Barnsley BS seeks safe haven with Yorkshire

by Gill Montia

Story link: Barnsley BS seeks safe haven with Yorkshire

Barnsley Building Society is being forced into a merger with Yorkshire Building Society, because of its exposure to two Icelandic banks.

The mutual, which has eight branches, around 60,000 members and assets of £376 million, has reported that it could face a £10 million loss as a result of the collapse of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and Heritable.

While the building society is confident that any write-down can be fully absorbed by its reserves, it says it is taking pre-emptive action in making an approach to Yorkshire, which is the UK’s third-largest building society.

Any proposals will not be subject to a vote by members and no windfall payment is expected.

The move follows just weeks after Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, announced plans to merge with The Derbyshire and The Cheshire Building Societies.

Meanwhile, Britannia, the UK’s second-largest building society, is in merger talks with Co-operative Financial Services.

A successful outcome of the negotiations could create a “super-mutual” and one of the largest financial services groups in the UK.