Skipton Building Society and Skipton Financial Services (SFS), its wholly owned financial advice subsidiary, are joining together to create one combined business.
It will operate under the Skipton Building Society brand. It means that customers will receive all their financial services needs from one business. The move, says the building society, reinforces its commitment to meeting the developing needs of members by offering end-to-end financial solutions to help them plan their life ahead.
The joining of the two businesses will not mean compulsory redundancies. The businesses already share the same head office building in the North Yorkshire market town where Skipton Building Society was founded in 1853.
The coming of the two businesses requires regulatory approval and is likely to complete in the summer.
Skipton Building Society’s Group Chief Executive David Cutter said: “Integrating the two businesses will enable us to better meet the needs of our customers, to support them with all their financial planning needs, and to develop our digital and online offering for them. As a result of this integration Skipton Building Society will be even better placed to help people prepare for their life ahead.
“Importantly, customers of both businesses can look forward to receiving the same high levels of personal service as they do at the moment. With both our organisations proudly listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For, as well as Skipton Building Society being named the best financial services provider on the high street for customer service excellence, and having our No Pressure Promise, we think we can only raise the bar even higher for service excellence.
“The past year has seen radical changes made to the pensions arena, which has left a generation of people in need of somewhere to turn to make sense of everything. There’s an even greater need for people to receive not only mortgage and saving support, but also investment and pensions advice, something that so few other firms are capable or willing to deliver on the high street to the mass market. We are both capable and willing, and by integrating our two businesses into one, we can evolve while we remain committed to providing financial advice to our customers.”
