26 January 2010

YORKSHIRE BUILDING SOCIETY - SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING - 26 JANUARY 2010

Yorkshire Building Society saving and borrowing members, like the members of Chelsea Building Society, have voted in favour of the merger between the two societies at the Special General Meeting (SGM). A majority of 86.68%* of savers passed the Shareholding Members' Resolution and 85.44%* of borrowers passed  the Borrowing Members' resolution to merge with Chelsea.

Bringing the two organisations together will create a second major force in the building society sector and a competitive and secure alternative to the retail banks. The enlarged Society will have capital ratios amongst the strongest of any major UK lender, bank or building society and a secure funding base.

The merged Society will have 2.7million members, assets of £35bn and a national network of 178 branches.

Iain Cornish, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said "I am delighted that both our members and the Chelsea members have recognised the benefits of this merger and voted in favour of it. 

"The financial services market has changed fundamentally over the last two years and scale is increasingly important to the efficient operation of building societies and access to funding markets. Our members can, however, be assured that we will not become too big to offer the personal service which we pride ourselves on."

The merger, subject to confirmation by the FSA, will complete on 1st April 2010.

* These results were announced at the Yorkshire's SGM on 26 January 2010. The Independent Scrutineers are now required to re-check the precise voting figures. This may result in some minor adjustments to the figures but any adjustments will not affect the overall result. Following this further checking, the final results will be displayed on the Society's website (www.ybs.co.uk) from Thursday 28 January 2010 or will be available from the Society's Group Secretary (alfitzpatrick@ybs.co.uk)