The Portman Building Society, which is the UK's third largest, is to merge with the Lambeth Building Society. The deal is still to be approved by members of the Lambeth, and the Financial Services Authority, and is expected to be effective from 30th September.
It will be called Portman Building Society and will remain a mutual, owned by its members. There will be no compulsory redundancies within the branch network as a result of the merger, and Lambeth's intermediary team will be incorporated into Portman's.
A merger bonus will be paid to qualifying borrowers and savers of Lambeth Building Society, with details due to be revealed this month.
Our view
Lenders are merging and consolidating to enable them to be stronger in a more competitive, European wide market. Partcularly as many big named Building Societies have de-multualised to become Banks so that they can raise capital.
Watch this space for further mergers and acquisitions.