Savers rush to local society
Anxious savers are fleeing to the safe haven of Black Country building society minnow The Tipton and Coseley, which has seen account numbers surge in recent months.
Despite the turbulent year in the financial sector, the Tipton today unveiled a strong set of year-end figures.
Savers pumped a record £21.32 million more into the society in 2008 than in the previous year, taking its total assets to £377 million.
But profits have been more than halved, and the society, blames the "unfair and disproportionate" amount of £612,000 it has had to pay into the financial services compensation scheme to bail out failed banks.
The society, which employs around 65 people and has branches in Tipton, Coseley, Bilston and Sedgley, said its £1 million profits were in stark contrast to the enormous multi-billion-pound losses declared by big banks like HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Tipton and Coseley chief executive Chris Martin said there had been a big surge in new customers around the time of the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank in October.
"We had 692 new accounts that month, up 19 per cent on the year before," he said.
"We are clearly seeing new customers who see us as a safe haven. We are also benefiting as people with big investments spread the money around after the Financial Services Authority set the compensation limit per account at £50,000.
"A lot of our new customers are local people and a lot of new business is down to people walking into our branches to open accounts."
The mortgage arm remained quiet, said Mr Martin, partly because the society has maintained its policy of lending only to people with a Birmingham or Black Country post code.
