Leek Building Society is an independent mutual

building society 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 Kingdo ...

based in

Leek, Staffordshire Leek is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is situated about north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1 ...

, England. It is the 16th largest building society in the UK, based on total assets of £1,091.4m as at 31 December 2019. The Society has 12 branches and a Customer Service Centre across

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

and

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. It is a member of the

Building Societies Association The Building Societies Association (BSA) was originally established in 1869. It is the voice for all 43 UK building societies as well as six large credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is ...

History

The Society was established as the Leek United Permanent Benefit Building Society on 1 January 1863, under the motto ‘Firm and Lasting (as the pyramids)’. The burgeoning building society movement of the mid-19th century saw hundreds of local mutual savings and loan organisations opening up across the country, and at the time of Leek Building Society's incorporation, there were almost 3,000 building societies in existence. By 1883, the Society had total assets of £90,000, reserves of £5,000 and a membership of 1,328. It changed its name to Leek United & Midlands Building Society in 1919, and then to Leek United Building Society in 1990, before becoming Leek Building Society in 2022. Unlike many of the UK's other building societies, Leek has never grown through acquisition or merger. In 1999, Leek Building Society was the target of a hostile takeover bid by Murray Financial Corporation, an Edinburgh-based financial group, which tabled a £30.5 million bid for the Society. It was a time when

carpetbagging In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical term used by White Southerners, Southerners to describe opportunistic Northern United States, Northerners who came to the Southern United States, Southern states after th ...

was rife, and the UK's remaining building societies were forced to fight for survival as opportunists sought to strip them of their mutual status and convert them into plc banks. Although Leek Building Society's Board rejected Murray Financial's offer, Murray gained the approval of 100 of the Society's members to call a special general meeting to consider the bid. It was estimated that each of Leek's 60,000 members could gain an £800 windfall from the sale of the Society. The bid failed, however, when the Society's members rejected the offer by an almost three to one ratio. In 2017 the Society's assets reached over £1bn.Building Societies Association
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References

Building societies of England Banks established in 1863 Organizations established in 1863 Leek, Staffordshire Organisations based in Staffordshire 1863 establishments in England {{UK-bsoc-stub