Cheshunt Building Society was a UK building society, which merged with the Bristol and West Building Society on 30 December 1991. [1] Bristol and West was taken over by the Bank of Ireland in 1997. Its savings balances and branch network transferred to the Britannia Building Society in 2005, which in turn merged with Co-operative Financial Services in 2009.
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and used to exist in Ireland and several Commonwealth countries. They are similar to credit unions in organisation, though few enforce a common bond. However, rather than promoting thrift and offering unsecured and business loans, the purpose of a building society is to provide home mortgages to members. Borrowers and depositors are society members, setting policy and appointing directors on a one-member, one-vote basis. Building societies often provide other retail banking services, such as current accounts, credit cards and personal loans. The term "building society" first arose in the 19th century in Great Britain from cooperative savings groups.
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise". Cooperatives may include:
Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual financial institution, the seventh largest cooperative financial institution and the largest building society in the world with over 15 million members. Its headquarters are in Swindon, England.
The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester.
The Co-operative Group, trading as the Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail and wholesale; e-pharmacy; insurance services; legal services and funeralcare, with in excess of 3,700 locations. It is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and owned by more than 4.6 million active members. Membership is open to everyone, provided they agree to subscribe £1 sterling in the capital of the society and share the values and principles upon which the group was founded. Members are democratically involved in setting business strategy, decide how social goals are achieved, and share in its profits – in 2018, £79m was returned to members and their chosen local community causes via the 5+1 scheme. The Group also owed £792m to its lenders.
Alterna Savings is a credit union founded in 1908 in Ottawa. It operates branches in Ontario and direct banking across Canada through its subsidiary Alterna Bank.
Britannia was a mutual building society in the United Kingdom. It had its headquarters in Leek, Staffordshire, and was the second-largest building society in the UK at 31 December 2007. It became an important provider of both mortgages and savings, as well as commercial lending.
The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, trading as Scotmid Co-operative, is an independent retail consumers' co-operative that originated in the Central Belt, particularly Edinburgh and the Lothians. It was formed in 1981 by a merger of the Dalziell Society of Motherwell with the St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1859. With over 5,000 staff, the chain now has nearly 200 supermarkets and five perfume shops in Scotland, nine Lakes & Dales food shops and over 140 Semichem health and beauty shops throughout Scotland, Northern Ireland and England
Co-operative Retail Services was the second-largest consumer co-operative society in the United Kingdom. In 2000, it was dissolved by its members, merging with the larger Co-operative Wholesale Society, to form the Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
DZ Bank AG is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for more than 900 co-operative banks and their 12,000 branch offices. Within the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Co-operative financial network, which is one of Germany's largest private sector financial service organisations, DZ Bank functions both as a central institution and as a corporate and investment bank.
Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world.
Co-operatives UK is "the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK". The co-operative federation was founded in 1870 as the Co-operative Central Board, changing its name to the Co-operative Union before finally becoming Co-operatives UK following its merger with the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 2001. Historically associated with the consumer co-operatives, the merger broadened its scope to include worker co-operatives and it now exists to support and promote the values of the entire co-operative movement throughout the UK.
Co-operative Banking Group Limited was a UK-based banking and insurance company and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group. Established in 2002, its head office was located at the CIS Tower, Miller Street, Manchester.
Co-op Insurance is the trading name of CIS General Insurance, a general insurance company, which is part of the Co-operative Group, based in Manchester, United Kingdom. Co-op Insurance Services, an insurance intermediary incorporated in 2017, is a wholly owned subsidiary of CIS General Insurance.
Big Sky Credit Union (BSCU) was an Australian based credit union formed by the current or ex-employees, contractors or service providers of BHP Billiton, BP Australia and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) and their subsidiaries, affiliated or divested companies. Big Sky became part of Australian Unity in 2012 and was merged with Australian Unity's subsidiary Lifeplan Australia Building Society which was subsequently renamed Big Sky Building Society. Since 2016, Big Sky's operations, services and website has been increasingly integrated into Australian Unity.
North West London Credit Union Limited was a savings and loans co-operative, operating in the north west London boroughs of Barnet and Brent. Based in Grahame Park, it had over 1,000 members and branches in Burnt Oak, Edgware, and Finchley. In 2013, it merged with London Capital Credit Union and the branches were closed.
Credit unions in the United Kingdom were first established in the 1960s. Credit unions are member-owned financial cooperatives operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit and other financial services to their members.
Central England Co-operative is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society's profits. A proportion of the profits of the business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes.
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