The Society was established and registered as a Building Society in 1899. We are members of the Building Societies Association and are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Based in central Edinburgh, we strive to offer a friendly and personal service. Given the fact that you are dealing with a Head Office situation, any enquiries will be dealt with promptly and efficiently with ease of access by investors to senior management on specific matters. Our activities over the years have been restricted to the core business of a traditional building society with the added benefits of mutual status (see below). Whilst our business philosophy may be traditional, our systems and “tools of the trade” are what one would expect of a player in today’s world of financial services.

The Importance of Mutual Status

The Board of Directors is strongly of the view that it is in the best interest of this building society and its members to retain mutual status. Mutual status means that the Society is owned by its members and not by equity shareholders. We therefore only require sufficient profits to maintain reserves for current and future requirements and not for dividend payments. With lower profit requirements we are in a better position to offer more competitive interest rates. Indeed there have been occasions where we have returned excess profits to members by way of enhanced rates.

Why You Should Consider Investing with Century Building Society

In addition to the financial stability of the Society and the protection of your investment by statute and, of course, by the substantial Reserves of the Society, we have identified the following through feedback from current and previous investors:

1. Extremely competitive interest rates.

2. Fast, friendly and flexible approach.

3. Immediate access to senior management on a personal basis.

4. Choice of investment accounts on fixed and variable basis and simple to understand.

5. Occasional Loyalty Bonuses or interest rate enhancements as finances permit.

Who can invest in Century Building Society?

The Society offers a number of share accounts (see below) offering membership rights to the Society. Under the Building Societies Act 1997, membership rights are only available to individuals. The Society does offer a Deposit account (see below) for bodies corporate, such as partnerships, small companies and charities, which does not offer membership rights.

All our accounts can be operated either in person at our head office, or by post.

Share Accounts - only available for individuals

A Shares – 2 or 3 year fixed term/fixed rate account. No withdrawals allowed. Automatically reverts to Ordinary Share rate on maturity pending your instructions.

B Shares – 2 or 3 year fixed term account. Interest rate is at a guaranteed margin above the Ordinary Share rate. Up to 25% of capital may be withdrawn each year. Automatically reverts to Ordinary Share rate on maturity pending your instructions.

Bonus Shares – Variable rate account, requiring 3 months notice for withdrawals.

Ordinary Shares – Variable rate account offering instant access with no loss of interest on withdrawal.

Cash Isa’s

All the above accounts can be operated on a Cash Isa basis, subject to HM Revenue & Customs rules and limits.

Deposit Account available for non-individuals

Variable rate account offering instant access with no loss of interest on withdrawal.

Current Interest Rates

Please refer to our separate rating card or our website for current interest rates on the above accounts.

How to make an Investment in Century Building Society

Should you consider making an investment then please complete the enclosed application form and send it together with your cheque or postal order and confirmation of Indentity and Residence (see below) direct to the Society. We will immediately acknowledge receipt and issue you with a passbook.

If you have not received any of the aforementioned literature, please telephone the Society (see Contact Details).

Confirmation of Identification and Residence

In common with all other Banks and Building Societies we require to confirm identification and residence of all new investors. We hope that you will not be offended by the checks necessary to discourage money laundering by criminals seeking to undermine the security of the Society and the protection of your investment.

Where you are applying as a new member of the Society, please provide one form of documentary evidence of identity, and one form of documentary evidence of residence.

Documentary evidence of identity:

a) Current full passport.

b) Current full UK or EEA driving licence.

c) Bank or building society statement (less than 3 months old).

d) EEA member state identity card.

e) Northern Ireland Voter’s Card.

f) Residence permit issued by the Home Office to EU Nationals on sight of their own country passport.

g) Benefit book or original notification letter from relevant benefits agency confirming benefits or state pension.

h) Self-Employed in the Construction Industry photographic registration cards.

i) Inland Revenue tax notifications e.g. tax assessment, statement of account, notice of coding.

j) Shotgun or firearms certificate.

Documentary evidence of address:

a) Electoral register search confirming applicant lives at stated address.

b) Recent utility bill or statement.

c) Local authority tax bill for current year.

d) Current full UK or EEA driving licence (see below).

e) EEA member state identity card (see below).

f) Local council rent card or tenancy agreement.

g) Benefit book or original notification letter from relevant benefits agency confirming benefits or state pension (see below).

h) Inland Revenue correspondence (see below).

Note that items d, e g and h may only be accepted as evidence of address if the same method has not been used as evidence of identity.

In the case of personal identity documents, please do not send originals in the post. Certified copies will be acceptable where they are countersigned by a regulated or professional person covered by money laundering regulations, such as a solicitor, bank official etc, or working for a government department. Contact details for the countersignatory must also be provided, should it become necessary to contact them.

In the case of passports, in order to comply with guidance issued by HMSO, photocopies of the personal details page of a UK passport may be made for the purposes of record keeping by the following persons:

a) the holder/owner of the passport.

b) notaries, solicitors, banks, UK government departments.

c) any person or institution subject to the requirement of the Money Laundering Regulations for the purpose of certifying that the identification checks required under those Regulations have been made.

Charitable Assignment

Reserves are a measure of a Society’s financial stability and it’s ability to compete in the future be it in favourable or adverse circumstances.

The Reserves of this Building Society have been accumulated over a long period from unappropriated net profits. In order to deter potential members who seek to have the Society relinquish its mutual status in return for a share of the Reserves, we have introduced a scheme whereby any distribution of Reserves has to be donated to a charity of the member’s choice.

Your Rights as a Member

As a member of the Society you are entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting and, in fact, stand for election as a Director should you wish.

Please note, as stated above, only individuals can become members of the building society. Also, there are additional rules regarding membership rights of investors in joint accounts (see below).

Account Passbook

On opening an account, the Society will issue you with a passbook, showing the type of account and the initial investment. The passbook records all the transactions on your account, and must be returned to us periodically to be brought up to date.

Notwithstanding the above, you are required to produce the passbook when closing your account. The passbook will be updated and returned to you as being cancelled.

You must immediately notify us if you discover that the passbook is missing. We will place a restriction disallowing any withdrawals to be made using that passbook, and forward a ‘Lost Passbook Declaration’ form to you for completion and return. Once we have received this, we will transfer your account into a new account with a different account number, and issue you with a fresh passbook.

Cooling off Period

If, within 14 days of opening of your account (unless it is an A Share account), you are not happy with your choice of account we will, on your written request, close the account and return the investment to you, or transfer it to another type of account. We will do this provided any cheque paid by you has been cleared by our bank.

Joint Accounts

An account (except where it is a Cash ISA) may be held by several people jointly. There are a number of points to consider when opening a joint account:

a) Unless advised in writing to the contrary, the account may be operated by any joint investor. This means that any one investor can withdraw all the funds from the account.

b) Unless advised in writing to the contrary, all correspondence, including the passbook, will be sent to the address of the person named first on the account.

c) Accounts held in a joint account are deemed to be jointly owned by all account holders. If one account holder dies, the funds will pass automatically to the survivor, regardless of the deceased’s will.

d) Any debt or loss incurred by the Society as a result of breach of terms of the account by any of the account holders, is the responsibility of all the account holders, regardless of who caused the loss.

e) As an investor in a share account you will be a member of the Society. However, in joint accounts, only the person named first on the account will be the ‘representative joint shareholder’. Only this person will be entitled to receive communications regarding, and exercise rights of, membership, such as the notice of AGM and voting form.

Payments into your Account

You may pay into your account cash and cheques made payable to you (but not non-sterling cheques or foreign currency). We will not accept cheques made payable to a name other than that of the accountholder(s), with the exception of cheques made payable to ‘Century Building Society’.

We will accept standing order payments, and bank transfers.

In all cases, where the payment is not made in person, you must ensure that the account into which the payment is to be made can be identified, either by the account number or accountholder name(s). The Society will not be held responsible for any sums received where we can not identify the beneficiary.

The Central Cheque Clearing Cycle operated by the banks takes three working days. However, as we are not a clearing bank, we have to deposit cheques we receive into our clearing bank. You will be able to withdraw against the proceeds of a cheque credited to your account on the seventh working day following the day of deposit.

Interest is payable from the day the payment is made into your account.

Should a cheque you pay into your account be returned unpaid by the bank, we will recover this from your account, and cancel any interest accrued on the pay in.

Cash Withdrawals

Cash withdrawals of up to £1,000 per day may be made from Ordinary Share and Deposit accounts, or on Bonus Accounts on the expiry of 3 months notice. Cash withdrawals of a higher amount may be made at the discretion of management, and will require at least 1 working days notice.

We do allow third parties to make a cash withdrawal on your behalf. However, they will require to produce the account passbook and a signed letter of authority from you, confirming the amount to be withdrawn, and who it can be paid to.

Cash withdrawals can only be made in person at our head office, and in no circumstances will we send cash in the post.

Cheque Withdrawals/Closures

Withdrawals/account closures may be made by post, and a cheque will be issued. The Society will require your written authority and will issue the cheque on the day the request is received in the office if the account is instant access, on the expiry of 3 month notice period if the account is a Bonus Shares, or on the maturity of a fixed term share account. Cheques can be made payable to you, or a third party (including a bank account).

Interest is payable up to the day before the withdrawal/closure.

Payment of Interest

Unless you have opened a monthly interest account, all interest is paid annually on 31^st December. You can elect to have interest either:

a) added directly into your account,

b) paid by way of a cheque to you, or

c) paid by way of a warrant into your bank account.

If you elect for interest to be added to your account, a statement detailing the amount paid will be forwarded to you in early January.

Income Tax

We can pay interest gross (without deduction of income tax) to non taxpayers on all our share accounts, provided we have received a valid R85 form. You should have been provided with the HM Revenue and Customs R85 form from the Society, but please contact us if you do not have one, or require another copy.

In the case of joint accounts, interest for tax purposes is deemed to be shared equally between each joint investor. We can pay the full interest gross if all of the joint investors complete an R85. However, if there are two joint investors and only one is eligible for gross interest, we will pay half the interest gross and half net. We cannot apportion interest differently between joint investors.

If the amount of tax deducted from your interest is more than your tax liability (if any), you may make a claim to HM Revenue and Customs for a repayment. If you are a higher rate taxpayer, you may have to pay additional tax.

Investors who are not ordinarily resident in the UK for tax purposes may be entitled to receive interest gross if they have completed a valid R105 form. Please contact us if you require this form.

The above only applies to individuals. The Society must deduct tax from interest paid to all other investors.

Interest Rate changes

Any changes in interest rates on a variable rate account will be notified in writing and on two months advance notice. The Society reserves the right to reduce the notice period where the rate is to be increased to your benefit.

Fixed Term account maturities

The Society will write to you giving two months notice of the maturity of your account. On maturity of A and B Share accounts, the funds will be automatically transferred to an Ordinary Share account, and the rate amended accordingly. This transfer will only be made where we have not received your written instructions to the contrary.

Financial Accounts

If you have not already received a copy of the Society’s Financial Statement please do request a copy. We will be only too happy to discuss our financial position with you and clarify any specific points.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

The Century Building Society is a participant in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.  As a customer of Century Building Society your account(s) with us are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to a maximum of £50,000 per person, unless you are: a large company; a large partnership; a large mutual association; a local, provincial or municipal authority; or a person whose claim arises from transactions relating to a conviction they have received for money laundering. Further details of exclusions from FSCS cover can be found on the Financial Services Authority website:

http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/COMP/4/2

Business Banking Code

The Society complies with the Business Banking Code as regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Complaints

In common with all other businesses, organisations etc, we accept that there may be occasions where errors have arisen or our service falls short of what we would normally strive for, thereby giving cause for grievance.

Should you have a grievance, please contact the Society without delay and if the problem has not been resolved, to your satisfaction, within twenty four hours we will issue you with details of our formal Complaints Procedure.

Confidentiality

All personal information we hold about you will be treated as private and confidential. We will only disclose this information to third parties with your consent or in certain exceptional circumstances permitted by law.

Data Protection Act 1998

On your written request we will provide you with a copy of the information we hold about you. You are also entitled to ask us to amend any inaccurate details or, in some circumstances, to remove them. You have the right of access to the personal information held by the Society and the credit and fraud prevention agencies we use, and we will supply their names and addresses on request.