Coventry building society set to finalise Stroud and Swindon deal
The Coventry building society is this week expected to announce details of an agreement to takeover the Stroud and Swindon building society. While the deal will need to be rubberstamped by the Stroud's 265,000 members many believe it is effectively a done deal with the smaller building society struggling in the difficult economic environment.
The merger will lead to the creation of a group with £21 billion of assets and push the Coventry building society to number three in the building society league table. The Coventry building society has a reputation as a strong operation and last year announced profits of £56 million having agreed over £900 million of new mortgage lending. This comes at a time when more and more building societies in the UK are struggling to survive and we are certain to see more mergers and acquisitions in the short to medium term.
As we have mentioned on numerous occasions, the UK financial sector of the future will be very different to the one which entered the recession. Lessons have been learnt and big names in the UK financial sector have fallen by the wayside or been taken over. Hopefully memories will last longer this time and the UK financial sector will not revert to the boom and bust cycles which were at the heart of the recent downturn.
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