Britannia AGM - voting form received

James_Robertson_1963

And what a biased document it is. Vote with the board, all you have to do is sign your name in the big red box...easy.

Stuff that, I'm voting against re-electing the lot of them on a point of principle. This voting form is a disgrace.

And they can stick their merger with the Co-op where the sun don't shine until the members get a pay out.:mad:

baby_boomer

The letter that came with the vastly reduced Members' Reward payment read like a veiled threat of "vote for the merger if you want rewards to continue".

Except it was worded differently to cover their asses.

In practice I expect that the vastly reduced payouts are a sign of times to come if/when the merger is approved since members tend to vote like sheep.

withnell

Exactly - I don't see quite what benefits there are except for increasing the CEO's pay packet!

baby_boomer

And if he uses out new, combined mutual to get the government out of a hole with Dunfermline BS, he could get a seat in the Lords as well!

shark_2

Britannia have always produced a biased voting form whereby it is all too easy to follow the 'red route' and vote for the board's recommendations. The proposed merger of Britannia Building Society with Co-op Financial Services Ltd is infact a "takeover". If it goes ahead, the Britannia brand will disappear within three years when all systems are integrated with the Co-op. Members are being asked to sign-away their membership and voting rights for absolutely nothing in return. Read the small print of the enclosed document and see that Britannia will not exist as a legal entity after the transfer of assets. Britannia's share accounts will become deposit accounts with the Co-op and Britannia membership will cease. Free £1 membership of the Co-op isn't going to sweeten the deal for me. I think all Britannia members have been sold down the line with this one by the board of directors, and hope they have the sense to see through the smokescreen and vote against a takeover with no financial reward for membership loss.

apt

The 'merger' does not even have the advantage of getting rid of the current Britannia chief executive who has led the society into the sub-prime morass. I will certainly be voting against. I'm also sick of biased building society voting forms. The online vote for Leeds BS has yes already filled in as the default option. Very shoddy.

realaledrinker

Voting against is not an option. The Britannia cannot exist long term in its present form given its sub prime losses & the state of its mortgage book (not quite Northern Rock but getting there). Give it 12 months and the Britannia would have to be "rescued" like the Derbys & Cheshire.

Milarky

realaledrinker wrote: »

Voting against is not an option. The Britannia cannot exist long term in its present form given its sub prime losses & the state of its mortgage book (not quite Northern Rock but getting there). Give it 12 months and the Britannia would have to be "rescued" like the Derbys & Cheshire.

Well that's the new 'black' apparently - no more building societies will be rescued by other building societies - who haven't got the cash - even by Nationwide which we read is holed below the waterline. The Dunfermline (next door to Gordon Brown's constituency) is expected to receive '£60 million' in taxpayer funny-money this week. The state can rescue that Scottish society so it could equally rescue a largely English one in Britannia if this bid from the Co-op hadn't come along. The people who really have no choice are the government - they can't allow any more failed banks to go into the FSCS - which is a shell anyway - because the levies from picking up the Icelanders and B&B have already driven a stake through the rest of the BS movement.

So I disagree - you can 'vote no' on this one and the world won't end. (Still plenty of gold parachutes available)

Oblivion

I shall be voting AGAINST the merger (takeover) and voting not to re-elect the directors. I hope many others will do the same.

Dave.

premierfella

Glad to hear that I am not alone in my reaction when I receive biased voting forms. I too vote against all directors and remuneration motions on principle when I receive such forms, but sadly this is unlikely to make much of a difference given the landslide votes in favour that are received by default.

Yorkshire does the same (although to their slight credit they do not highlight the "sign here" box).

I was surprised when I logged into my Skipton online voting form today to find that even when you follow the route to make your own voting choices, they helpfully select the vote for as a default for all the motions - a bit presumptuous methinks and I think the first building society online voting form I have seen that does this.

Cozworth806

The mutual principles are a farce at the moment.

What made me laugh (well sort of) was that on Radio 4 they were discussing that there will probably be a return to locally run community organisations.
Funny That, sounds like a great idea!

As for Britannia, my wife closed her account with them, after about 15 years of saving. Shafted as a saver she was getting 0.1% interest.