Family Building Society

The Family Building Society
Building Society (Mutual)
Industry Banking and financial services
Founded 14 July 2014
Headquarters Epsom, England
Key people
 Mark Bogard, Chief Executive
Products Savings, mortgages, investments
Total assets £113 million (July 2014)
Website familybuildingsociety.co.uk

The Family Building Society is a building society, based in Epsom, Surrey, in the UK. It is a member of the Building Societies Association.

The Society was formed by the National Counties Building Society and opened on 14 July 2014. It was the first building society to launch in the United Kingdom since the Ecology Building Society was established in 1981.[1]

Organisation

The Chief Executive is Mark Bogard.[2] The Society has one branch in Epsom, and transactions can be carried out by phone and internet.[3] The Society provides the customer advice and makes the mortgage offer but the intermediate administrative processes have been outsourced to the company Brilliant Solutions.[4]

Products

The building society concentrates on providing products and services that are designed to enable members of a family to provide mutual assistance, while safeguarding their savings, in particular parents who want to help their children. The initial capitalisation was £113 million.[1]

The core offer consists of savings and mortgages. In addition, Chase de Vere have been appointed to provide financial advice to customers.[5] The equity release partner is Key Retirement Solutions.[6]

The flagship product is a mortgage, called the 'Family Mortgage'. There are two requirements that need to be satisfied to obtain the mortgage. Firstly, the applicant must be able to make a 5 percent deposit and, secondly, this must be backed up by their relatives who must have put enough money in their accounts to cover at least 25% of the purchase price and the family's deposits act as security for the loan.[7] Because the purpose of the deposits is to be security for the mortgage, the protection afforded by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not apply.[8] Family is the first UK building society to include a payment waiver product, offered in conjunction with CUNA Mutual Group, where the mortgage repayments are met for up to six months if the mortgagor lose their job through no fault of their own.[9] To enable high loans to value mortgages to be provided, Family will offer mortgage insurance products from Genworth Financial.[10]

Reception

Susan Hannums, of SavingsChampion.co.uk, criticised the savings rates offered stating that better rates were available elsewhere. David Hollingworth, of London & Country mortgages, said that the mortgage rates being offered are not as good to other 75% LTV deals though he expects the deals to appeal to the target market.[11] Which? advises that if someone can raise a deposit of at least 5%, then other providers may be able to offer better rates. However, where first-time buyers have relatives who are able and willing to invest sufficient funds, then this mortgage could be suitable.[12]

A media campaign, to publicise the Society, was launched in August 2014. AML Group ran the campaign.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 Chan, Szu Ping (14 July 2014). "Family Building Society aims to help parents to help children". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Webb, Tim (14 July 2014). "Family Building Society vows to take pressure off the bank of Mum and Dad". The Times. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Jones, Rupert (14 July 2014). "Family – the new building society launches". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Family Building Society outsources mortgage processing to Brilliant". Mortgage Solutions. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Gillbe, Ruth (14 July 2014). "Chase de Vere in exclusive advice tie-up with new society". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  6. ↑ O'Loughlin, Donia (17 July 2014). "KRS sole equity release partner for new building society". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Shoffman, Marc (14 July 2014). "Help your kids (or grandkids) on to the property ladder without giving them money: New building society offers Family Mortgage". This is Money. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  8. ↑ Jones, Rupert (19 July 2014). "New building society makes first-time buying a family affair". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  9. ↑ Atkin, Joanne (17 July 2014). "Cuna Mutual launches protection product for The Family Building Society". Mortgage Finance Gazette. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  10. ↑ Walker, Peter (31 July 2014). "Building society partners to offer high LTV mortgages". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Whitcombe, Laura (14 July 2014). "Family Building Society launch: does it stack up?". Moneywise. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  12. ↑ "Could a 'Family Mortgage' be right for you?". Which?. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  13. ↑ West, Gillin (29 July 2014). "Family Building Society to target 'squeezed generation' with launch campaign from AML". The Drum. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
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