YBS
“ I ’ M A PROUD YORKSHIREMAN . I LOVE COMING TO WORK BECAUSE , WHILST WE MAKE A NATIONAL IMPACT , THE CULTURE AND THE ROOTS OF THE BUSINESS FEEL VERY YORKSHIRE ”
BEN SAMPSON , MBA DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION , YBS
and the Huddersfield Building Society merged with another local mutual , the Bradford Building Society , to create the entity that exists today .
It is a history of consolidation : in the years after the merger , the newly rebranded Yorkshire Building Society would gradually accumulate more of its peers from across the UK , slowly increasing its sphere of influence and growing steadily in size . The Haywards Heath , Barnsley , Chelsea , and Norwich & Peterborough Building Societies were all subsumed into YBS and today the group has a balance book in excess of £ 55bn .
Is its Yorkshire heritage still important ? Being local and mutually owned means that Yorkshire Building Society is motivated by its members , not by a distant shareholder who they ’ ve never met . Everything that YBS does is for the service of its members .
“ I don ' t actually think we are local at all anymore ,” Morris says . “ We ' ve got a national branch network , a sophisticated digital footprint across all our brands and we ' ve obviously got customers from all over the British Isles . We ' ve got customers in Northern Ireland , Scotland , Cornwall , and a huge London presence .”
Instead of thinking local , YBS today thinks about local values . It has expanded far beyond Yorkshire ’ s borders , but the organisation is still proud of its heritage and is committed to upholding the traditional values that are said to define this beautiful part of the world : humanity , empathy , honesty , and a sense of doing the right thing .
“ I ’ m a proud Yorkshireman . I ' m a local lad ,” says Ben Sampson . “ I love coming to work at the Yorkshire Building Society because whilst we ' re national and we make a national impact , I think the culture and the roots of the business feel very Yorkshire . If you ask a Yorkshireman what they think about being from Yorkshire , they ' ll use words like openness , integrity , fairness and honesty – and I think we have a culture that really thrives on that .”
YORKSHIRE FACT FILE
• Historical area of northern England made up today of four counties
• Nearly 15,000km ² ranging from peaks and dales to heritage coastline
• Major cities include Leeds , Bradford , Sheffield , Hull and York
• Renowned for its food and drink including strong tea , batter puddings , Wensleydale cheese , Pontefract liquorice , and its forced rhubarb
• Population according to the 2021 UK census : 5.5mn
158 February 2023