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Skipton Building Society previously owned a number of "sub prime" lending companies. Two remain - as with the others - created during the "Goodfellow" years. This subsidiary, "Amber Homeloans" (previously Skipton Mortgages Limited) closed to new business in 2008 with the message that new business would not be accepted, by which time the company had grown to around £1,500,000,000 of sub-prime, high risk loans or "assets" (mortgage loans) as described by SBS,
Skipton Building Society previously owned a number of "sub prime" lending companies. Two remain - as with the others - created during the "Goodfellow" years. This subsidiary, "Amber Homeloans" (previously Skipton Mortgages Limited) closed to new business in 2008 with the message that new business would not be accepted, by which time the company had grown to around £1,500,000,000 of sub-prime, high risk loans or "assets" (mortgage loans) as described by SBS,


Skipton Building Society's credit rating has increasingly been reduced by major credit rating agencies over the last years, especially due to its sub-prime activities such as lending honest savers' savings to sub-prime mortgagees in the US; risky unsecured loans and car insurance debtors in the UK etc. etc; A further decline in the SBS rating occurred when it was recognised that the UK government is likely to be unwilling to bail it out in event of insolvency.<ref>http://www.moodys.com/research/Skipton-Building-Society-Credit-Opinion--COP_600044020</ref> Recently the society has been upgraded. <ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10539689/Moodys-upgrades-Skipton-Building-Societys-outlook.html<ref>
Skipton Building Society's credit rating has increasingly been reduced by major credit rating agencies over the last years, especially due to its sub-prime activities such as lending honest savers' savings to sub-prime mortgagees in the US; risky unsecured loans and car insurance debtors in the UK etc. etc; A further decline in the SBS rating occurred when it was recognised that the UK government is likely to be unwilling to bail it out in event of insolvency.<ref>http://www.moodys.com/research/Skipton-Building-Society-Credit-Opinion--COP_600044020</ref> In 2013 the society has been upgraded. By both Moody's and Fitch.


SBS have also regularly edited this page and attempted to suppress and delete negative information about themselves, or from another perspective look for a more balanced view.
SBS have also regularly edited this page and attempted to suppress and delete negative information about themselves, or perhaps others are looking for a more balanced view in line with other Wikipedia entities.




Revision as of 21:35, 17 February 2014

Skipton Building Society
Company typeMutual
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1 May 1853 (Skipton)
1845 (Chesham)
HeadquartersSkipton, England, UK
Key people
David Cutter, Chief Executive
ProductsFinancial services
£22.2 million GBP (December 2011)
Total assets£13.9 billion GBP (December 2011)
Websitewww.skipton.co.uk

The Skipton Building Society is a building society in the United Kingdom (also known as a mutual lending and savings organisation as it is owned by the members).[1] It is a member of the Building Societies Association.

The Society was established in 1853 in Skipton, North Yorkshire, where it remains headquartered. It is the UK's 4th largest building society and has over 750,000 members and 100 branches. Group pre-tax profit was £36.4 million for 2012. The Society has 15 subsidiary companies, mostly in the financial services industry[2] These include Connells Group, one of the largest estate agency networks in the UK with 485 branches across the country.[3] In 2010, it merged with the Chesham Building Society, founded in 1845, which was at the time the world's oldest surviving building society.


History

[4] 1853 - The Skipton Permanent Benefit Building Society is established at a public meeting in Skipton, West Riding of Yorkshire, held at the old Town Hall (unpredictably, now a pizzeria). Samuel Farey (1822-1895) a cotton mill owner and George Kendall, a timber merchant, are amongst the founders of the Society. They are benevolent, wealthy industrialists who have prospered from the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, establishing the new Society as a safe place to deposit savings, with a return on investment offered.

1854 - First Annual Meeting of Skipton and District Permanent Benefit Building Society is held. The Society has 223 Members and £2,951.16s.8d in balances.

1879 - 1,185 members, £47,129 balances.

1892 - Head Office moves to 11 Newmarket Street from its home at the Old Post Office.

1895 - Samuel Farey dies, aged 73.

1903 - The Society becomes incorporated. It now boasts 1,532 Members and £82,305 in balances.

1921 - The Head Office moves a few yards along the street to numbers 5 & 7 Newmarket Street, Skipton.

1922 - Branches open in Nelson, Blackpool and Lytham, soon followed by branches in other towns and cities.

1923 - Henry Smith's (the draper's shop at 59 High Street) is bought in Skipton, with a view to demolishing the shop to make space for a brand new Head Office.

1928 - The new Head Office in Skipton town centre is opened by The R.t Hon. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government.

1929 - In the year of The Wall Street Crash, the Society holds assets of £1 million.

1945 - The Second World War ends and the Society holds assets of £5 million.

1950 - Assets double in five years to £10 million.

1953 - The Society celebrates its Centenary, holding assets of £11.7 million.

1956 - Assets rise to £14 million.

1958 - Assets stand at £15 million.

1963 - Assets grow to £25 million.

1974 - Assets have now reached £100 million.

1977 - Assets stand at £150 million.

1978 - A five-storey extension to the rear of the High Street Head Office is built, to house over 200 staff. It occupies part of the site where the first office opened in 1853 (in Providence Place). This year also sees the installation of the very first computer (a Burroughs B3700) in the new Skipton Administration Centre. Skipton Building Society now has 32 branches and 75 agencies throughout the UK, holding more than 125,000 accounts.

1990 - The Bailey, the Society's modern new premises on Harrogate Road, Skipton is built.

1998 - The Bailey is extended

2009 - Takes over the former Scarborough Building Society; numerous redundancies and branch closures despite previous promises of no redundancies.

2010 - Skipton Building Society merges with The Chesham Building Society - at the time, the world's oldest surviving building society, founded in 1845.

Mergers

The Skipton Building Society merged with the former Scarborough Building Society on 31 March 2009.[5]

The Scarborough Building Society had encountered difficult trading conditions which had a significant impact on profitability and a weakening of the Society's resources. As a result the board of The Scarborough concluded the effect of continuing UK house price instability and growing prospect of recession, the best way to protect its members' interests would be to seek a buyer.

Scarborough's former Chief Executive, John Carrier, retired on 31 December 2008.

On 1 June 2010 the building society merged with the Chesham Building Society following the latter's financial difficulties.[6]

Controversies

John Goodfellow's annual paypacket of £630,000 was the highest for any Building Society chief.[7] In 2008 Goodfellow received £1,244,000, despite him being required to leave early from his service contract. He was also allowed to accrue pension benefits in the Skipton Building Society Pension & Life assurance Scheme until the end of 2009. Skipton waived any early retirement discount factors applicable to his benefits in the scheme, enabling him to access his £2.3 million pension pot from 10 January 2010 without fear of any penalty.[8]

When Skipton announced it was taking over the Scarborough Building Society in November 2008 society chiefs told staff no jobs would be lost compulsorily in the process. However just months after the assurances 30 Scarborough jobs were lost when the societies mergedCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). On 4 March 2009 Skipton CEO reiterated that Skipton had made the 3% pledge and would keep it.[9]

Skipton angered borrowers on its standard variable mortgage rate (SVR) by backtracking on this promise.[10] A petition was started against the rate rise, against which it is reported that the Society faces a legal challenge.[11] High profile objectors to the rise include Which?, also known as the Consumers' Association whose chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith said, on 21 January 2010 "We can't see any justification for this unexpected hike in Skipton's SVR",[12] the Daily Mail, whose personal Finance Editor Jeff Prestridge, said on 30 January 2010 "Financial Mail maintains Skipton's abandoning of its SVR guarantee is indefensible"[13] and Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com founder, who said on 18 February: "This sort of irresponsible rate rise destroys any faith the public has in the mortgage system."[11]

Skipton suffered a serious breach of data security in 2009 when over 3,000 savers received financial details about other customers. When Skipton mailed 108,000 account statements to savers on the weekend of 23–24 January 2010, 3,115 went out with the name, account number, balance and interest earned in the previous year of different customers printed on the reverse of the letters.[14] This followed an Information Commissioner's Office finding, in 2008, that Skipton was in breach of the Data Protection Act, following the theft of an unencrypted laptop left by a third party contractor at a gym. The unprotected information lost included names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and investment amounts of 14,000 customers.[15]

Skipton Building Society was featured in the "In The Back" section of Private Eye Magazine in June 2005 after it failed to disclose a £30 million loss at CallCredit PLC, a subsidiary company, and the John Goodfellow sponsored purchase of a £3.5 million core IT systems from a loss making IT company which it subsequently had to rescue at the cost of £10  million of members' savings.[16]

Skipton Building Society previously owned a number of "sub prime" lending companies. Two remain - as with the others - created during the "Goodfellow" years. This subsidiary, "Amber Homeloans" (previously Skipton Mortgages Limited) closed to new business in 2008 with the message that new business would not be accepted, by which time the company had grown to around £1,500,000,000 of sub-prime, high risk loans or "assets" (mortgage loans) as described by SBS,

Skipton Building Society's credit rating has increasingly been reduced by major credit rating agencies over the last years, especially due to its sub-prime activities such as lending honest savers' savings to sub-prime mortgagees in the US; risky unsecured loans and car insurance debtors in the UK etc. etc; A further decline in the SBS rating occurred when it was recognised that the UK government is likely to be unwilling to bail it out in event of insolvency.[17] In 2013 the society has been upgraded. By both Moody's and Fitch.

SBS have also regularly edited this page and attempted to suppress and delete negative information about themselves, or perhaps others are looking for a more balanced view in line with other Wikipedia entities.


References

  1. ^ http://www.skipton.co.uk/about_us/pdfs/report_accounts_2006.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.skiptongroup.com
  3. ^ http://www.connellsgroup.co.uk/about-us
  4. ^ http://skiptonbig160.co.uk/our-big-160/history-of-the-society/
  5. ^ http://www.skipton.co.uk/about_us/scarboroughMemberQA.aspx
  6. ^ Chesham Merger Announcement Skipton Building Society
  7. ^ Jeff Prestridge (2007-04-15). "Building society fat cats". This is Money. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  8. ^ "The loss of mutual affection at Skipton". FTAdviser.com. 2010-01-28. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  9. ^ "Skipton pledges to pass on any base rate cut in full". FTAdviser.com. 2009-03-04. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  10. ^ "Angry Skipton borrowers turn to Facebook - This is Money". Blogs.thisismoney.co.uk. 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  11. ^ a b "Skipton faces legal challenge over mortgage rate hike". Moneysavingexpert.com. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  12. ^ [1][dead link]
  13. ^ Jeff Prestridge (2010-01-30). "JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Skipton sinks lower with a new betrayal | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  14. ^ Jeff Prestridge (2010-01-30). "FSA set to hit Skipton with heavy fine for data breach | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  15. ^ Nikki Sandison (21 February 2008). "Skipton found in breach of Data Protection Act - Media news". Media Week. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  16. ^ Private Eye 18 June 2005, p68
  17. ^ http://www.moodys.com/research/Skipton-Building-Society-Credit-Opinion--COP_600044020

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skipton_Building_Society&oldid=595933916"