Northern Rock Building Society was formed on 1 July 1965 as a result of the merger of Northern Counties Permanent Building Society (established in 1850) and Rock Building Society (established in 1865). Northern Rock Building Society then merged with a number of small local building societies and, prior to its conversion to a public limited company in October 1997, was an amalgamation of 53 societies.

On 1 October 1997 Northern Rock converted from a building society to a public limited company listed on the London Stock Exchange and authorised under the Banking Act 1987.

In February 2008 Northern Rock was taken into temporary public ownership (TPO) and at the end of 2009 has restructured into two separate companies, both of which remain in TPO:

• Northern Rock plc is a new, well-capitalised bank that will hold and service all customer savings accounts and some existing mortgage accounts, as well as offering new mortgage and savings products to new and existing customers.


• Northern Rock (Asset Management) plc is the existing company that has been renamed. This company is also well-capitalised and holds and services the majority of existing mortgage and unsecured loan accounts. It does not offer any new products or provide the option of additional borrowing to its existing customers.

This new structure offers a capital-efficient structure and will help facilitate an appropriate return to private ownership in due course.

For details about this you can visit our company information page.

About Northern Rock Ireland

Northern Rock opened an office in Dublin in November 1999, initially offering a variable rate demand account, Direct Saver, for personal customers. Since then, other competitive personal and business savings products have been added to the range, and Northern Rock Ireland (part of Northern Rock plc) now offers a number of accounts for individuals, businesses and credit unions. Personal customers can now invest in accounts such as Demand Online, an internet-based account, and Direct Silver Savings, an account available exclusively for the over 50s.