Cheltenham & Gloucester

C&G's History

Cheltenham & Gloucester were founded in 1850. From life as a minor local concern they have become the third-largest mortgage lender in the UK today.

Cheltenham & Gloucester's philosophy is "taking a simple, focused approach means that we concentrate on quality and value highly the core business we know best - mortgages (and mortgage-related insurance) and savings. Because we play to our strengths, we can deliver quality service to our customers. Our focused approach, simple product range and the commitment of our staff have made us the most cost-efficient of the major mortgage lenders."

Cheltenham & Gloucester's growth over the past two decades has been built on a philosophy of passing the benefits of this cost efficiency on to their customers.

In 1995, following a decision by its members, Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society converted from a mutual society to a plc and became part of the Lloyds Bank Group.

The demutualisation was groundbreaking. Although Abbey National had converted and floated on the Stock Exchange six years earlier, it was C&G's conversion and acquisition that provided the catalyst for the series of demutualisations and acquisitions that took place over the next two years - with Halifax, Woolwich, Northern Rock and Bristol & West all converting from building society status. As well as delivering cash windfalls to members, C&G's conversion opened up a whole new realm of retail sales to the lender. Within a few months, C&G was selling its mortgages through every Lloyds branch in the UK, giving it the biggest distribution network of any lender. When Lloyds merged with TSB a few months later, C&G began selling its products through their branches, too.

As well as selling mortgages through C&G and Lloyds TSB branches, C&G has its own telephone sales operation, C&G Mortgage Direct, a presence on the Internet, and a specialist telephone and postal investment service, C&G Invest Direct.