Nationwide confirms merger with smaller competitors
In a move which we flagged just yesterday it has been announced that the Nationwide Building Society will be taking control of the Derbyshire and Cheshire building societies after the two smaller rivals hit financial trouble. As this is in affect a bail out of the two societies, whose financial security was in doubt, Nationwide will not be instigating windfall payments to the members concerned.
On a more disappointing note it has also been confirmed that the move looks likely to cost hundreds of jobs as the operations are merged under the Nationwide banner. Unaudited figures suggest that the Derbyshire was on the verge of announcing a loss of £17 million for the half year with the Cheshire set to announce losses of £10.5 million for the same period.
These are very tough times in the financial sector, as shown by the government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac in the US, and while the two smaller societies had been very stable prior to the credit crunch they, like so many, have struggled to cope. When you compare the lightening quick bailout of these two organisations to the protracted bailout of Northern Rock maybe lessons have really been learnt.
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