Today, 1 February 2011, sees the transformation of Kent Reliance Building Society into OneSavings Bank Plc a bank run on mutual principles, created in partnership with private equity firm JC Flowers & Co. We have been granted a banking licence by the FSA and will trade as krbs.

In our new structure, members of the Society have become members of Kent Reliance Provident Society, a new industrial and provident society. KRPS will hold a majority of ordinary shares in OneSavings Bank Plc. All our business, savings accounts and mortgages, has been transferred from the building society to the bank.

The new organisation continues to have the ethos of a mutual, but will have the trading advantages of a bank, enabling new capital to be brought to the business.

OneSavings Bank Plc will be a new style of bank: we will put customers first, providing you with affordable, competitive savings and mortgage products and banking services. Our prime aim will be to treat customers fairly, whether you choose to deal direct or opt for traditional High Street based forms of banking. Our High Street presence is expanding as we open seven new offices this month.

Our CEO, Mike Lazenby, said

“We are absolutely delighted we have been granted a licence by the FSA which will see our transformation into OneSavings Bank Plc. This is the culmination of more than a year of consultations with advisors, working to produce a structure capable of introducing fresh capital into the business, whilst retaining mutuality for our members – we are effectively taking our mutuality to another level.

“We are passionate about mutuality and still believe it has a role to play in protecting and promoting consumer interests. We will be a bank run on mutual principles, providing customers with affordable, competitive and efficient banking services - whether they choose more traditional branch-based forms of banking or whether they deal with us online.

“We are very much back in play now, poised to develop our successful business franchise and focused on putting the customer first in all we do.”