Scarborough & Skipton Building Societies Merging

baby_boomer

the_Skipton_board wrote:

Both societies are financially strong

FT Adviser

"...The decision [to give up Scarborough's independence] comes after Scarborough's board concluded that continuing house price falls and the impending recession in the UK could lead to an unacceptable reduction in its capital resources..."

HankMcSpank

From today's Guardian....
.

The credit crunch appeared to have claimed another scalp when it emerged this week that Scarborough Building Society is being rescued by its bigger Yorkshire cousin, the Skipton. In a joint statement, they said this was an opportunity for the two societies to create an enlarged institution that was better placed to deal with future uncertainties in the financial marketplace.
The Scarborough admitted the difficult trading conditions had dealt a blow to its finances. When you see what the society has been dabbling in, you may wonder whether this was a full-scale bail-out.
In October 2006, the Scarborough launched a specialist lending arm offering "adverse buy-to-let", "heavy adverse", self-certification and other "non-conforming" mortgages. Later it boasted that the popularity of this division "far outstripped anything we dared hope for".
Then in July last year, the Scarborough's North Yorkshire Mortgages arm bought a pounds 300m portfolio of "prime, buy-to-let and self-certification [mortgage] assets" from GMAC-RFC, which specialised in sourcing home loans and selling them on to other lenders. It is not clear what has happened to this portfolio since then, or how well - or badly - these loans are faring, but other lenders that bought mortgages from GMAC include Bradford & Bingley and Britannia. B&B has said arrears on the GMAC loans, many of which were self-certified by customers, were higher than on its own mortgages, and Britannia also has higher-than-average arrears on its acquisitions.
Founded in 1846, the Scarborough has more than 200,000 members, none of whom will receive a windfall.
John Carrier, the Scarborough's chief executive, says of the specialist lending arm: "We stopped any form of lending in that subsidiary in the very early part of this year." In a statement, it adds: "Our arrears levels for the group as a whole are below the industry average and have played no part in our proactive and positive decision to merge with Skipton."

isn't the lack of news/transparency outrageous?

Milarky

HankMcSpank wrote: »

Isn't the lack of news/transparency outrageous?

I can just picture the emergency phone-call to the FSA waivers-section on a Friday afternoon and Mr C standing in the Scarborough Boardroom with his fingers crossed behind his back saying: "No, the balance sheet's fine -honest!"

bristolleedsfan

"The Scarborough Building Society Home Cinema Mortgage, 4.99% fixed for two years, fee of £395 and two-and-a-half grand's worth of TV chucked in, does illustrate that our building societies were not quite the models of prudence they like to make out."

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/this_is_money_blog/2008/11/scarborough-bui.html

http://www.scarboroughbs.co.uk/news/2006/may09_westborough.html


Scarborough BS was a corner shop trying to be Tescos. On their website are a few clues from the press releases from not that long ago;

How about a student buy-to-let package?

"Scarborough Building Society has completed its circle of buy-to-let mortgages with the addition of a new Student Buy-to-Let product.

This means that the Society now offers something for every kind of landlord – from experienced professionals to lay investors looking for new ways of saving money towards their retirement."

or this;

Press release published on 7 August 2006 by Scarborough Building Society

"Scarborough Building Society is this week launching automated desktop valuations – with an aspiration of providing mortgage offers in as little as 24 hours.

For the Society, this latest move further enhances Scarborough’s end-to-end mortgage processing service, which it believes is already distinctive within the industry.

Complemented also by drive-by valuations"

Oh dear 'drive by valuations', i.e. the valuer doesn't even get out the car!

and this;

"A second, £50 million, mortgage portfolio sale has further boosted the asset trading and administration partnership between Scarborough Building Society and global investment bank Lehman Brothers."

Ah yes Lehman Brothers, are the profits still rolling in from them I wonder?

"It is also expected to provide a stepping stone for more future sales, further cementing Lehman Brothers’ position as one of the Scarborough Group’s significant partners."

Sure about that?

They also wanted a slice of the action when the borrower had complex sources of income, Eric Pebble has a word for that!

"Press release published on 6 November 2006 by Scarborough Building Society

Scarborough Building Society has begun a programme of significant investment in its Leeds-based business, starting with the arrival of its new Specialist Lending Centre.

The new centre will eventually house up to 12 specialist mortgage underwriters and support staff, who will underpin Scarborough’s new non-conforming mortgage subsidiary – Scarborough Specialist Mortgages (SSM).

Launched in October, SSM will specialise in non-conforming mortgage products, which cater for people who have either experienced credit problems in their lives or perhaps do not fit the traditional borrower mould because they are self-employed or have complex sources of income."

And don't forget their wholly owned subsidiary North Yorkshire Mortgages, a real vehicle for profit, until the wheels came off that is;

"North Yorkshire Mortgages (NYM) has purchased a further £300 million portfolio of mortgage assets from GMAC-RFC, the latest in a series of acquisitions made by NYM in recent years.

The trade, consisting of a blended pool of prime, buy-to-let and self-certification assets, was completed on Friday, 29 June and will further boost the Scarborough Building Society subsidiary’s ambitious growth plans for the year ahead.

NYM Managing Director and Scarborough Group Commercial Director, Martin Frazer, said: ‘The Scarborough Group has a longstanding relationship with GMAC-RFC and this latest acquisition reaffirms our joint commitment to developing this established partnership.

‘It also underpins NYM’s successful asset trading strategy and associated growth plans for its sister company Scarborough Mortgage Services (SMS).

‘GMAC-RFC’s high quality assets will further support NYM’s and SMS’s ongoing success in nurturing relationships with a growing list of major international clients and we believe this will be the first of several such transactions taking place in our financial year 2007/8.’"

Balls_Of_Steel

RayWolfe wrote: »

Don't feel too bad about it, many of the "campaigners" for keeping more B/Ss for the competitive benefit, used to post quite a lot about maintaining £100 in as many B/Ss as possible. Can't possibly think why!

Yes pal, i got a "FREE" car (£18K) from carpet-bagging these mutuals....and selling at the right time :beer:

Balls_Of_Steel

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

Complemented also by drive-by valuations"

Oh dear 'drive by valuations', i.e. the valuer doesn't even get out the car!

Hey, it's not that crazy, you can see a houes from outside (2,3 or 4 beds)..a bit like valuing a Lada or a Lexus just by a "drive-by"...not difficult.

bristolleedsfan

Balls_Of_Steel wrote: »

Hey, it's not that crazy, you can see a houes from outside (2,3 or 4 beds)..a bit like valuing a Lada or a Lexus just by a "drive-by"...not difficult.

:rotfl:

There is a saying " Its whats on the inside that counts".

jack_spratt_2

But nobody will this time :beer: :j:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::T:T:T

Or in the future

cheggers

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

On the face of it, looks a very nice portfolio


http://www.skiptongroup.com/

http://www.skiptongroup.com/mutualOne.asp

Can see Skipton may be a takeover target in the future, lets hope we get a windfall.

bristolleedsfan

cheggers wrote: »

Can see Skipton may be a takeover target in the future, lets hope we get a windfall.

Reports are saying that Skipton BS are wanting to go on a Building Society sweep, this thread should really be in "Freebies, no spend required". :rolleyes:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/16/mergersandacquisitions-banking