Coventry Building Society has completed its acquisition of the Co-operative Bank for £780m in cash.
The enlarged group has assets of around £89bn, mortgage balances of £50.3bn and a combination of around four and a half million members and customers across the country.
The deal was formally finalised on 1 January, after first being announced last May, with the building society financing the purchase from its own resources.
“The bank is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the society, said the mutual in a stock market statement yesterday.
It added: “Each entity will retain their respective banking licences, and so customers of each organisation and members of the society will continue to have the same Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection as before the acquisition.”
The building society has said it intends to integrate the bank “gradually over several years”.
The combined group will be led by chairman David Thorburn, chief executive Steve Hughes and chief financial officer Lee Raybould.
Coventry Building Society group chief executive Hughes added: “We’re still going to operate as The Co-operative Bank and Coventry Building Society for the time being.
“This means there will be no change to the way you use our services right now.”
The Co-operative Bank tells brokers that it expects no immediate changes to its business development manager arrangements.
“In the short term no changes are expected in terms of your day-to-day contact and you can expect business as usual,” the lender says on its intermediary website.
The business adds Nick Slape will retire from his role as chief executive of The Co-operative Bank, with “a handover period in the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition”.
Hughes will act as interim chief executive of the bank alongside his group role in the wider business until a permanent appointment is appointed.
Bob Dench retired from his role as chair of The Co-operative Bank on 1 January.
Jo Kenrick has taken on the role of chair of The Co-operative Bank board, she is currently deputy chair of Coventry Building Society’s board.
Coventry Building Society, established in 1884, employs more than 3,000 staff and has over 2 million members.
The Co-operative Bank, formed in 1872, also has around 3,000 staff with 50 branches around the country.
The new owners will hope to firmly end the era of turmoil for the Co-operative Bank following an accounting scandal that left a £1.5bn black hole in 2013.
The bank split off from the wider Co-op group after the accounting scandal.
The deal comes after Nationwide completed its £2.3bn takeover of Virgin Money in October.
