THE merger of Skipton Guernsey Ltd and Scarborough Channel Islands Ltd has moved a step closer, with both groups of staff now under the same roof.

Relocation of employees from Scarborough’s offices at Town Mills to Fairbairn House in the Rohais to join their Skipton colleagues took place last month.

Subject to regulatory approval, the two building societies are expected to complete the amalgamation at the end of next month to form Skipton International, a specialist savings and mortgage bank.

Skipton managing director Alan Bougourd said bringing the 33 staff together, including the 12 from Scarborough, was a prerequisite to amalgamating the companies.

He said combining the services of both building societies would create a much stronger operation and would see no redundancies.

‘Customers can still expect the same service as before, but as a combined entity we are stronger and now have the scale to deliver a more innovative offering to meet clients’ needs.’

It was announced in November that the Skipton and Scarborough building societies were to merge in the UK and that the Guernsey offices would follow suit. It makes the local entity a subsidiary of the fifth-largest building society in the UK, with approximately 860,000 members and backed by more than £16bn-worth of assets.