Britannia (FKA Britannia Building Society)

Financial Institutions:Credit Unions & Building Societies

Summary

Britannia Building Society is the United Kingdom’s second largest building society, with assets of GBP 33.4 billion, three million customers and 253 branches. The membership business is run through Britannia and its branch network while the non-member businesses are run through Britannia Capital Investment Group (BCIG). The largest of BCIG’s subsidiaries is Platform, which encompasses all the non-standard lending business, such as self-certified, light-adverse and non-conforming, but also buy-to-let lending (i.e., the higher-risk lending end of the spectrum sourced through intermediaries such as mortgage brokers). A large proportion of this higher-risk book has been securitised. Britannia offers credit cards to members through a joint venture with HBOS plc, but this business is on a very small scale and there are no plans to expand