The Yorkshire Building Society is eyeing-up potential takeover targets as part of a drive to grow its branch network by up to 20 per cent in the next three years.

The Bradford-based Yorkshire is bucking the trend of many financial giants by looking to expand its presence in the high street.

And today chief executive Iain Cornish revealed the society was keen to open talks with smaller rivals which "don't feel they have an independent future".

The move is part of a strategy launched by recently-installed Mr Cornish to expand the Yorkshire's presence outside its traditional heartland in the M62 corridor.

The Yorkshire is looking to snap-up job-lots of branches belonging to other societies which are moving away from the high street in favour of telephone and Internet banking.

"We are very keen to expand our branch network, particularly in areas of the country where we are not necessarily so strong at the moment," said Mr Cornish.

"It is very expensive to start up branches from scratch so it is more cost effective to buy up other people's and that is our preferred approach. Certainly there are a lot of opportunities at the moment and we feel it is more and more important to have a presence in the high street."

Part of the new strategy will be to target smaller independent building societies which are currently struggling to compete with larger rivals.

"There is speculation that other societies may feel they don't have an independent future," said Mr Cornish. "If there are societies that feel they don't want to carry on, then I think we would be an attractive partner for them."

Mr Cornish said the Yorkshire was keen to hold talks with rivals but denied discussions were already under way. He said the merger or takeover option had "come to greater prominence" following a recent review of the Yorkshire's strategy. "We have always wanted to grow and expand," said Mr Cornish.

The boss of the Rooley Lane-based society said it had always believed a strong branch network was crucial. But he admitted the society was under-represented in some parts of the country. The move to expand the 131-strong branch network by between ten and 20 per cent follows increased business at branches and surveys suggesting most customers still prefer to conduct their business over the counter.

"Even though people want to use the Internet and the phone, they also want to use branches to the same extent and, as other organisations have been less committed to their branches, ours have done better," he said.

"City centres are not always the best place to be because that's where everyone else is," added Mr Cornish. "We want to expand in those areas where we have already got good brand awareness."