Kent Reliance Building Society
Encyclopedia
Kent Reliance Banking service, also known as KRBS, was a building society
based in Kent
, England
. Incorporating the Chatham Reliance (established 1898), Dover District (established 1861), Herne Bay (established 1888) and Kent & Canterbury (established 1847), KRBS was the fastest growing building society in the UK between 2003 and 2008 and was a member of the Building Societies Association
.
The dramatic growth of KRBS was driven in part by the establishment in 2002 of a wholly owned subsidiary, Jersey Home Loans Ltd, to buy the Jersey
mortgage business of Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank Ltd. By September 2008, this subsidiary had mortgages on its books of over £700 million, achieved by competing on both price and service in a market dominated by the major high street banks. Lending was suspended pending a review of Jersey operations as a result of the Jersey bank regulator's ongoing refusal to grant a deposit taking licence as KRBS is not in the top 500 world banks. KRBS also operates a lending business in Guernsey and the Channel Islands operations in aggregate constitute 43% of the Group's mortgage assets.
It had assets of over £2.3 billion, a network of six agencies and two remaining branches (in Chatham and Hempstead
, near Gillingham
), all in Kent, following a wholesale programme under chief executive, Mike Lazenby, of converting branches to agencies. This saw the number of outlets reduce from 14 to 8. Lazenby described branches as "a liability".
KRBS was also notable as the only member of the UK building society sector to have offshored administrative work to India, via its wholly owned subsidiaries, Easiprocess and EasiOption. The KRBS Group employed significantly more staff in India than it did in the UK, and as a resulting KRBS had the lowest costs (as a percentage of assets) of any UK building society.
announced its intention to purchase a stake of Kent Reliance, forming OneSavings Plc. The transfer of the business of the society to OneSavings was approved by a majority of members in November 2010. Kent Reliance Building Society converted into a provident society, Kent Reliance Provident Society
, which owns a 59.9% stake in OneSavings Bank, with
JC Flowers
owning the remaining 40.1%. The transfer became effective on 1 February 2011 and OneSavings Plc was renamed OneSavings Bank Plc.
under a three year sponsorship deal from 2009/10-2011/12. It previously sponsored its more local team Gillingham F.C.
for the 2007/08
-2009/10 seasons, but this sponsorship ended at the same time that Gillingham were relegated from League One
to League Two
. The team shirts bear KRBS's website address, krbs.com.
Building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...
based in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Incorporating the Chatham Reliance (established 1898), Dover District (established 1861), Herne Bay (established 1888) and Kent & Canterbury (established 1847), KRBS was the fastest growing building society in the UK between 2003 and 2008 and was a member of the Building Societies Association
Building Societies Association
The Building Societies Association is the trade organisation of the building societies in the United Kingdom. In 2011 the 48 building societies in the UK had total assets of over £317 billion. 15 million adults have building society saving accounts and over 2.9 million adults are currently buying...
.
The dramatic growth of KRBS was driven in part by the establishment in 2002 of a wholly owned subsidiary, Jersey Home Loans Ltd, to buy the Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
mortgage business of Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank Ltd. By September 2008, this subsidiary had mortgages on its books of over £700 million, achieved by competing on both price and service in a market dominated by the major high street banks. Lending was suspended pending a review of Jersey operations as a result of the Jersey bank regulator's ongoing refusal to grant a deposit taking licence as KRBS is not in the top 500 world banks. KRBS also operates a lending business in Guernsey and the Channel Islands operations in aggregate constitute 43% of the Group's mortgage assets.
It had assets of over £2.3 billion, a network of six agencies and two remaining branches (in Chatham and Hempstead
Hempstead, Kent
Hempstead is a settlement near Gillingham, Kent, part of the urban area of the Medway Towns.-Location and geography:It is located on the southern edge of the borough of Medway adjacent to Wigmore and Lordswood and linked to Gillingham and the M2 by the A278 trunk road.Most of Hempstead is in a...
, near Gillingham
Gillingham, Kent
Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Rainham, Rainham Mark and Twydall....
), all in Kent, following a wholesale programme under chief executive, Mike Lazenby, of converting branches to agencies. This saw the number of outlets reduce from 14 to 8. Lazenby described branches as "a liability".
KRBS was also notable as the only member of the UK building society sector to have offshored administrative work to India, via its wholly owned subsidiaries, Easiprocess and EasiOption. The KRBS Group employed significantly more staff in India than it did in the UK, and as a resulting KRBS had the lowest costs (as a percentage of assets) of any UK building society.
Transfer to OneSavings
In July 2010 JC FlowersJC Flowers
J.C. Flowers & Co. is a private equity investment firm, focused on investments in the financial services sector. The firm, founded in 2001, is based in New York City and run by billionaire J. Christopher Flowers, a former Goldman Sachs partner....
announced its intention to purchase a stake of Kent Reliance, forming OneSavings Plc. The transfer of the business of the society to OneSavings was approved by a majority of members in November 2010. Kent Reliance Building Society converted into a provident society, Kent Reliance Provident Society
Kent Reliance Provident Society
Kent Reliance Provident Society ' is an Industrial and Provident Society in the United Kingdom, it is also a member of Co-operatives UK. KRPS currently holds the majority of shares in OneSavings Bank Plc following the transfer of the Kent Reliance Building Society business to OneSavings Plc on 1...
, which owns a 59.9% stake in OneSavings Bank, with
JC Flowers
JC Flowers
J.C. Flowers & Co. is a private equity investment firm, focused on investments in the financial services sector. The firm, founded in 2001, is based in New York City and run by billionaire J. Christopher Flowers, a former Goldman Sachs partner....
owning the remaining 40.1%. The transfer became effective on 1 February 2011 and OneSavings Plc was renamed OneSavings Bank Plc.
Sponsorship
KRBS sponsored south London football club Charlton Athletic F.C.Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
under a three year sponsorship deal from 2009/10-2011/12. It previously sponsored its more local team Gillingham F.C.
Gillingham F.C.
Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...
for the 2007/08
2007-08 in English football
The 2007–08 season was the 128th season of competitive football in England.-European competitions:In October 2007 Arsenal equalled the UEFA Champions League record victory with a 7–0 win over Slavia Prague at the Emirates Stadium. The record was broken the following month when Liverpool...
-2009/10 seasons, but this sponsorship ended at the same time that Gillingham were relegated from League One
Football League One
Football League One is the second-highest division of The Football League and third-highest division overall in the English football league system....
to League Two
Football League Two
Football League Two is the third-highest division of The Football League and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system....
. The team shirts bear KRBS's website address, krbs.com.
External links
- Kent Reliance Banking Services website
- Kent Reliance Provident Society website
- Easiprocess - KRBS business process outsourcingBusiness process outsourcingBusiness process outsourcing is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments...
subsidiary, based in BangaloreBangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... - KPMG Building Societies Database 2008