Charitable Assignment

Leeds Building Society is committed to remaining a mutual society and hopes that all prospective new members of the society share our belief that mutual status is in their best long term interests.

Following a period in which speculative investment disrupted the business of the Society, customers now have access to our savings accounts with an opening balance of as little as £1. These arrangements will ensure that we can deliver that value to all, without the need for artificially high minimum investment levels to counter the disruptive actions of speculators. We believe that this will allow us to meet more fully the requirements of genuine savers whom building societies were originally established to serve.

In order to achieve this, all new customers opening a savings account which gives membership of the Society will be required to sign a declaration agreeing to assign to the Leeds Building Society Charitable Foundation any windfall conversion benefits to which they might become entitled in the future. This agreement will last for the first five years of membership, after which the declaration will cease to have effect for the member in question.

There will be some exceptions to this requirement to avoid unfairness, which are described in Your Questions Answered below. Any customer who already holds a membership account as a saver or borrower before 1st March 1999 will not be affected at all by the declaration.

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