Nottingham Building Society and Shepshed Building Society are preparing to merge on 1 July 2013.
The proposed merger is subject to approval by the members of The Shepshed and confirmation by the Financial Services Authority.
Following the merger and planned systems integration, The Shepshed’s three branches will be rebranded as The Nottingham and will stay open for a minimum of three years. The Nottingham currently has 31 branches in Nottinghamshire and the surrounding area.
There will be no compulsory redundancies as a direct result of the merger and staff who currently work in The Shepshed’s branches will continue in their roles. A single head office will be run from central Nottingham and staff at Shepshed will be offered alternative roles within the enlarged society.
David Marlow, chief executive of The Nottingham, said: “The Shepshed shares many of the same values we do. As member owned organisations we have a clear and simple purpose. We exist to serve the needs of current and future members, and to support the communities in which we operate. The Nottingham has been doing this successfully since 1849 and continues to build on our recent strong results.”
“We believe that it is important that there are strong regional building societies offering a real alternative to the bigger banks. The proposed merger with The Shepshed will allow us to bring our own brand of high quality customer service, provided by local staff with local knowledge to a greater number of high streets in our heartland.”
Gini Bolton, chairman of The Shepshed, said: “We have selected The Nottingham as our partner as it is the optimum choice. The Nottingham is the UK’s ninth largest society with a head office close to our branch operating area and has the financial strength associated with a large mutual building society to provide assurance to our members.
“The merger will ensure that members of The Shepshed are able to continue to benefit from membership of an independent mutual building society as well as being able to access a broad range of mortgage and savings products, independent financial advice, whole of market mortgage advice and local estate agency services.
“The directors of Shepshed Building Society strongly encourage the society’s members to vote in favour of the merger.”
Full details of the merger proposal will be sent to members of The Shepshed in March 2013 and will be asked to approve the merger at its Annual General Meeting to be held in April 2013.
