The Yorkshire Building Society is to take over its smaller rival, the Barnsley Building Society. The Barnsley said it was protecting itself against the possible loss of up to £10m deposited with Icelandic banks. It went on to add that it could stand such losses and in no way were customers accounts at risk. However the Barnsley felt that in these times of economic difficulty, it could mitigate risk by becoming part of a larger organisation.

As the recession kicks in and there are more casualties in the financial services sector there are likely to be more takeovers and mergers as companies look to strengthen their financial positions.

We’re losing money on our equity investments, the cost of food is going up, energy bills have gone up and now the cost of a fixed rate mortgage is also on the up. Banks and Building Societies have had no choice but to increase the interest on fixed rate deals as the cost for them to borrow money in the wholesale markets has gone up by over 0.3%. (more…)

The Yorkshire Building Society has conducted research amongst 2,000 people to see how well they could manage financially if they were to lose their job or suddenly fall ill. The findings made for rather alarming reading. (more…)