National Counties Building Society
 | |
| Building Society (Mutual) | |
| Industry | Banking and Financial Services |
| Founded | 1896 |
| Headquarters | Epsom, England, UK |
Number of locations | 1 |
| Products | Savings, Mortgages, Insurance |
| Total assets |
£1.5 billion GBP (December 2015),  £1.4 billion in 2014 |
Number of employees | 143 |
| Website | www.ncbs.co.uk |
The National Counties Building Society is a mutual UK building society, with a head office in Epsom, Surrey. It is a member of the Building Societies Association and Council of Mortgage Lenders. It is the UK’s largest single office building society and provides mortgages and savings accounts to over 50,000 customers in England and Wales.
The building society offers a range of savings products, as well as mortgages suitable for first time buyers through to those needing a mortgage in retirement, or a mortgage for a property to let out.
In 2014 the Society launched the Family Building Society, the first building society to launch since 1981. The Family Building Society offers saving and mortgage products, as well as a range of other services provided by third party relationships.
History
Originally called the Fourth Post Office Mutual Building Society, the Society was incorporated on 3 March 1896, with offices in London. As the original name suggests, the Society had been preceded by three earlier ones, the First, Second and Third General Post Office Clerks Building Societies. Each of these societies terminated once their members (then restricted to the employees of the Post Office) had been housed.
In 1946 the Society deleted "Mutual" from its name to become the Fourth Post Office Building Society and in 1960 the Garter King of Arms granted arms, supporters and a new motto, Rei Custos Tuae (Custodian of your Goods), to the Society. The impressive coat of arms was duly adopted as the Society's logo, appearing on all its printed material for the next 30 years or so.
In 1965 the Society changed its name to the National Post Office Building Society and the following year moved its head office to Epsom, Surrey. The renamed Society pioneered the development of savings accounts by post, offering this innovation to all members of the public rather than dealing only with Post Office staff. To reflect this widening of its membership, in March 1972 the Society's name was changed to National Counties Building Society and in 1973 it accepted the transfer of engagements from the Post Office Permanent Building Society. In 1989 the Society’s assets first reached a quarter of a billion pounds.
When the Society celebrated its Centenary in 1996, it declared that it looked forward to continuing to provide its customers with 'best-buy' products backed by high quality service. Towards the end of the year, it was one of the first building societies to operate a website, providing its existing and new customers with access to its products and services. In 1997 the Society’s total assets reached half a billion pounds and by 2006 the Society’s total assets reached a billion pounds.
In July 2014 National Counties launched the Family Building Society, specifically designed to help all generations of families across a wide set of financial offerings. The new building society was set up to help tackle some of today's most pressing financial problems by offering a wider set of financial solutions than a traditional building society.
Products and services
The Society offers a range of savings products that are both fixed and variable rate, with easy access and notice accounts as options. These accounts are available to individuals and businesses.
The Society also offers mortgages to first time buyers through to those in retirement, and offers a range of buy to let mortgages for residential investment. The Society has a team of in-house mortgage advisers who can provide advice on their own products, and they also accept applications via mortgage intermediaries.
The Society is also able to offer other services aside from savings and mortgages such as insurance and later life products, via relationships with third parties.
The Society has one branch, in Epsom town centre, and the remainder of administration functions are based in the head office in Epsom. Accounts can be managed via post, telephone or online.
Financial strength
National Counties’ Group Assets increased in 2015 to £1,569 million supported by reserves of £114 million. The Group’s Gross Capital ratio of 8.59% compares favourably with the average for our society peer group based on 2014 results of 7.16% (source: KPMG Building Societies Database 2015) and our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, commonly used to compare financial institutions’ capital strength, at 22.3%, continues to provide much envied financial strength