Birmingham Midshires
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Birmingham Midshires is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of HBOS plc. It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park,Wolverhampton, England and has offices throughout England and Wales. Previously it was a building society, known as the Birmingham Midshires Building Society.
The Birmingham Midshires was formed in 1986 by the merger of the Birmingham and Bridgewater and the Midshires Building Societies. These societies could trace their routes back to 1849 and were themselves formed by the mergers of the following societies: Liverpool Building Society, Wolverhampton and Mercia, Bristol Equitable Permanent Benefit, Swansea & Gower Permanent, and the Warrington Workingmens' Permanent.
In 1999, the Birmingham Midshires Building Society agreed to a takeover bid from the Royal Bank of Scotland. However the deal collapsed when Halifax plc tabled a more lucrative offer. It then became a part of HBOS plc when the Halifax merged with the Bank of Scotland.
On 15 September 2005 Birmingham Midshires announced it was planning to close 48 of its 67 branches, through a phased programme concluding in March 2006, and the conversion of the remaining outlets to the Halifax brand. Customers were given the option of banking at their nearest Halifax branch and the 470 full and part time BM employees are to be offered an alternative role at the company or within the wider Halifax branch network.
Today the Birmingham Midshires remains a separate division within HBOS, and offers a range of specialist mortgage and savings products. When Birmingham Midshires became part of the Group in April 1999, it had savings balances of £5.9 billion and mortgage assets of £9.2 billion. BM savings balances have doubled since then to £12 billion; mortgage assets have more than trebled to over £32 billion.
Commenting, Nigel Stockton, Managing Director of Birmingham Midshires, said: "This is the right decision for Birmingham Midshires and its customers. The majority of our customers, who do not require a branch service, will be able to operate their accounts by telephone, post or Internet. Those customers that want a counter service will have access to a bigger branch network and a wider product range. All our colleagues will be offered alternative roles."
"We will focus exclusively on strengthening our position as the UK's leading direct savings and mortgage provider."
Source
- [http://www.askbm.co.uk/ BM website press release "Birmingham Midshires Business Strategy" 15 Sept 2005
External link
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| Banking: Bank of Scotland | Halifax | Intelligent Finance | Birmingham Midshires | Sainsbury's Bank | St. James's Place Bank | BankWest | Banco Halifax Hispania | Bank of Scotland International | Bank of Scotland (Ireland) | Bank of Scotland (Netherlands) |
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