Hands Off!

Any transition to a bank would trigger possible windfall payments of up to an estimated £2,000.

The Society, which has its headquarters in Crossflatts, confirmed that a members' resolution calling for conversion had sufficient backing to be voted on at its annual meeting on April 26.

But chairman Lindsay Mackinlay said the board was unanimous in its decision to oppose the proposition and would urge its 2.5 million members - including thousands of local investors - to vote against any conversion.

The move follows the conversion to a bank of the Halifax in 1995.

The B&B, which employs 1,600 people at Crossflatts and its Bingley town centre offices, suspended new savings accounts yesterday to prevent a flood of carpetbaggers.

The resolution was put forward by Stephen Major, a quantity surveyor from Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Former butler Michael Hardern is also making a bid to turn the Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society and the Skipton Building Society into banks

Christopher Rodrigues, chief executive of the Bradford & Bingley, said he was confident that members would vote in favour of mutuality.

He stressed that even if members voted in favour of conversion at the AGM, the Society would not automatically convert to a bank.

He said that this vote was more of an "opinion poll", and the board would have to call an Extraordinary General Meeting to vote on a specific conversion resolution before any change could be made to the status of the Bradford & Bingley.

For any conversion to go through, the building society needs to have the majority of its borrowers voting in favour, plus 50 per cent of its investors voting of which 75 per cent had to approve such a move.

Mr Mackinlay said: "We are determined to fight for our future as a mutual - the board is unanimous in its belief that the best interests of both today's' and tomorrow's members are served through us remaining a mutual."

But co-ordinating a campaign against conversion could prove a costly affair for the Bradford & Bingley.

Mr Rodrigues estimated that the move by 70 members to call a vote will cost the society £5 million. In addition, there will be lost revenue from freezing new savings accounts.

Mr Major's resolution follows similar calls from Michael Hardern to stand for the board of six other building societies on a conversion ticket.

Mr Hardern, who narrowly lost his bid to convert the Nationwide into a bank last year, is standing for election at the Bradford-based Yorkshire, Skipton, Britannia, and Chelsea building societies.

Bob Goodall, co-ordinator of the Save our Building Societies campaign, described this concerted attack on mutuals as a "bitter disappointment" and called for the law to be changed to protect building societies.

T&A Opinion

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