The Birmingham Midshires was formed on 30 June 1986 by the merger of the Birmingham and Bridgwater and the Midshires Building Societies. These societies could trace their roots back to 1849 and were themselves formed by the mergers of the following societies: Liverpool Building Society, Wolverhampton and Mercia, Bristol Equitable Permanent Benefit, Swansea & Gower Permanent, and the Warrington Workingmens' Permanent.
Birmingham Midshires offered a range of specialist mortgage and savings products.
In 1999, the Birmingham Midshires Building Society agreed to a takeover bid from the Royal Bank of Scotland. However the deal collapsed when Halifax plc tabled a more lucrative offer. Halifax itself became a part of HBOS plc when it merged with the Bank of Scotland in 2001. In 2007, it became a division of Bank of Scotland plc following a reorganisation in the HBOS Group.
When Birmingham Midshires became part of the Halifax in April 1999, it had savings balances of £5.9 billion and mortgage assets of £9.2 billion. BM savings balances later doubled to £12 billion; mortgage assets more than trebled to over £32 billion.
On 15 September 2005 Birmingham Midshires announced it was planning to close 48 of its 67 branches, through a phased programme concluding in March 2006, and the conversion of the remaining outlets to the Halifax brand.[1] Customers were given the option of banking at their nearest Halifax branch and the 470 full and part-time BM employees were offered an alternative role at the company or within the wider Halifax branch network.
In 2008 HBOS plc was taken over by Lloyds Bank and it is now part of the Lloyds Banking Group. Its main headquarters were rebranded as Lloyds, and different sectors and work were moved to and from the site.
It was announced in April 2024 that the former Birmingham Midshires head office would close and all remaining Lloyds Banking Group staff would relocate to the newly-refurbished Colmore Row office in Birmingham by the end of 2025.[citation needed]
As of July 2024, all Birmingham Midshires savings accounts have been closed, and its website states it is closed to new and existing customers for savings[2] and to new customers for mortgages.[3]
