Cheltenham and Gloucester

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheltenham and Gloucester (C&G) is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB. The C&G specialises in savings products and mortgages. Previously C&G was a building society, known as the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society. The bank is the third largest mortgage lender in the UK. It is headquartered in Gloucester, England.

C&G, like many large building societies in the UK, was formed from a series of mergers of small regional societies. It can trace its routes back to the Cheltenham & Gloucestershire Permanent Mutual Benefit Building and Investment Association in 1850. At first the Society was based in Cheltenham, its first Gloucester branch opening in 1896. Over the next 80 years, it expanded throughout the UK, opening the 100th branch in Pershore in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, the C&G acquired several smaller building societies, as consolidation of the sector intensified.

In 1995, the C&G agreed to a takeover approach from Lloyds Bank. This involved the demutalisation of the society, and generated a windfall payment to its members. The C&G brand was retained, and used to sell mortgages through the branch network of Lloyds Bank, and later Lloyds-TSB Bank following the merger of Lloyds Bank and TSB Bank. C&G also retains its own branch network throughout the UK, and operates C&G Invest Direct, a telephone and postal investment service.