Coventry BS In Merger Talks WIth Stroud & Swindon BS

alanq

"Coventry Building Society and its smaller rival, the Stroud & Swindon, are in talks about a merger, according to Sky sources."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Coventry-Building-Society-In-Merger-Talks-With-Rival-Stroud--Swindon-Sky-Sources-Say/Article/201003115568405?f=rss

Primrose

Another contraction of the financial industry. Soon there will be so few institutions that anybody with savings over £50,000 is going to be hard pressed to find enough safe places to hold them !

Chadsman

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/gloucestershireheadlines/Stroud-Swindon-merger-talks/article-1890627-detail/article.html

http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/money/2010/03/07/building_societies_in_merger_talks

savetilibleed

alanq wrote: »

"Coventry Building Society and its smaller rival, the Stroud & Swindon, are in talks about a merger, according to Sky sources."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Coventry-Building-Society-In-Merger-Talks-With-Rival-Stroud--Swindon-Sky-Sources-Say/Article/201003115568405?f=rss

Will Coventry's 'TLC not PLC' still be as relevant if the merger goes ahead I wonder. I don't know what size Stroud and Swindon are in comparison to Coventry and whether absorbing them will affect either of them adversely. I am a fan of Coventry BS. I only wish I lived in the area where they have high street branches.

evenasus

savetilibleed wrote: »

I am a fan of Coventry BS. I only wish I lived in the area where they have high street branches.

I'd prefer it if they had a high street branch in the place I lived.

karatedragon

evenasus wrote: »

I'd prefer it if they had a high street branch in the place I lived.

I am with the Cov and am way out of the branch area. Never been a problem really. I have the Cov 1st account

Hungerdunger

savetilibleed wrote: »

I only wish I lived in the area where they have high street branches.

I'm very happy that I don't

Hazzanet

Have to be honest that I have a Cov account but am well inside the S&S branch area and also have accounts with them. Never had a problem dealing with Coventry remotely so I would agree that you don't need to be in their branch area to deal with them.

I actually quite like S&S; some of their products aren't particularly good value, but some others are and the branch service is excellent. Sadly, they haven't embraced technology in the same way as Coventry have, meaning their online offering is rather poor and pretty much everything still works on passbooks.

I'd be interested to see what comes of this; S&S had a reasonable performance last year, but the annual report pointed out that the profit they made was eaten away by the FSCS levy which then put them in the red. They were pretty damning of the unfairness of the levy and it's a shame that they may be merged into another institution as a result.

wadewade

I presume there's no possibility of S&S account holders receiving any cash out of this take-over?

apt

I assume that is correct as Stroud and Swindon is not profitable. I'd also expect the Stroud and Swindon Regular Saver, which is the best currently on the market, to be curtailed either by dropping the rate or lowering the maximum balance of £20,000.

savetilibleed

Hazzanet wrote: »

Have to be honest that I have a Cov account but am well inside the S&S branch area and also have accounts with them. Never had a problem dealing with Coventry remotely so I would agree that you don't need to be in their branch area to deal with them.

Coventry are very good to deal with, I agree, by post. They turn items around the day they receive them, unlike many other places who take ages.