FSA approves merger of Norwich & Peterborough and Yorkshire Building Societies

THE Financial Services Authority has today announced that the merger between Norwich & Peterborough and Yorkshire Building Societies can go ahead.

The merged society will be called Yorkshire Building Society and will be completed on November 1.

A Yorkshire Building Society spokesman said: “It will have approximately three million members and 224 branches and will be focused on the traditional building society business of residential mortgages and savings and will be principally retail funded.

“The N&P name will be retained as a separate and distinct brand within the Yorkshire, similar to the Chelsea and Barnsley brands.”

The proposed merger was announced in April this year and received the approval of N&P’s saving and borrowing members who voted in favour of it at a special general meeting held in Peterborough on August 22.

Members were urged to vote for a merger, with the warning that a no vote would see branches of the institution close.