YORKSHIRE Building Society has confirmed plans to merge with smaller rival Norwich & Peterborough (N&P) in a move that will create a mutual with three million members and 224 branches.
Yorkshire, the UK’s second-biggest building society, has branches in York, Selby, Easingwold, Knaresborough, Harrogate, Pickering, Driffield, Scarborough, Northallerton and Bridlington.
Yorkshire said it would retain N&P’s brand and its 46 branches and its 360 branch staff for at least two years.
But it signalled a small number of job losses within N&P's 375-strong head office in Peterborough in the year after the merger.
N&P was hit with a £1.4 million fine earlier this week and agreed to pay £51 million to its customers after it mis-sold investment products in collapsed firm Keydata Investment Services. It made a £48.9 million loss last year after making provisions for the Keydata compensation.
Yorkshire Building Society has also bought smaller mutuals the Barnsley Building Society in 2008 and Chelsea Building Society last April as the financial sector has consolidated.
It has about 2.6 million members,178 branches, and employs 2,900 staff.
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