Britannia

Britannia is a former mutual building society which merged with the Co-operative Financial Services in 2009. It is now a trading name of the Co-operative Bank in the United Kingdom. Britannia was headquartered in Leek, Staffordshire, and was the second largest building society in the UK based on total assets of £36.8 billion at 31 December 2007. It became an important provider of both mortgages and savings, as well as commercial lending. Britannia was legally dissolved as a separate organisation on 1 August 2009 and merged into Co-operative Financial Services, to become a trading name of The Co-operative Bank. In January 2013, the Co-operative announced that the brand would be phased out by the end of 2013, and began rebranding branches under the Co-operative Bank name. However, the Co-operative Bank's own financial crisis resulted in the original plans being abandoned. Instead many Britannia branches were closed, and only a small number were retained and rebranded.