The Yorkshire Building Society is the second largest building society in the UK, with its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Assets now approximately £33 billion.
In 1864 the Huddersfield Equitable Permanent Benefit Building Society was founded in Huddersfield, and expansion through a series of agreed mergers, predominantly with the Bradford Permanent Building Society in 1975, has seen it evolve into the national building society that it is today. The current name came into use in 1982, following the merger of the Huddersfield & Bradford Building Society and the West Yorkshire Building Society. The Yorkshire also has a mortgage subsidiary company, Accord. In August 2011 it announced that it was closing its offshore subsidiary, Yorkshire Guernsey.
Despite changes in the industry in recent years, the Yorkshire remains as one of the major mutual building societies in Britain - a review in 1995 confirmed that their mutual status was important to them, so that they remain answerable to their members, rather than outside shareholders.
The Yorkshire currently provides financial services both directly and through a 224-strong branch network and 94 associated agencies across the UK. It is a member of the Building Societies Association.
Read more about Yorkshire Building Society: Mergers and Acquisitions
Famous quotes containing the words building and/or society:
“Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials. He thinks he has enough to raise a large and stately edifice; but after he has arranged, compacted and polished, his work turns out to be a very small performance. The authour however like the builder, knows how much labour his work has cost him; and therefore estimates it at a higher rate than other people think it deserves,”
—James Boswell (17401795)
“I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them. We must have society on our own terms, and admit or exclude it on the slightest cause.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)