The Halifax bank opened for business in 1853 as the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society. The reason for the society was for the benefit of the local working residents. If any investors had money to invest, they would receive interest on their investments. Borrowers would then get loans to buy a home. Many of the United Kingdom building societies (or loan companies) grew by making mergers and acquisitions but Halifax Building Society went the organic way and just continued to open more offices in other areas of the U. K.. This Building Society became the largest one in the U. K. By 1913. They opened their first office in London in 1924 and the first on in Scotland in 1928. In 1928 they merged with the Halifax Equitable Building Society, which was at that time, the second largest building society. They renamed the organization the Halifax Building Society. This made the Society five times larger than their rivals and their assets were around 47 million.
The Society remained the largest through the 20th century and it is still the largest building society today in the U.K.. They have expanded by now offering credit cards, savings accounts, and other business services offered by other ordinary banks. The Halifax merged with the Leeds Permanent Building Society in 1995 and the company went on the London Stock Exchange on June 2, 1997. They had over 7.5 million customers of the Society who became shareholders of the new bank. This was the most people who had ever invested in any one company in the history of the U. K..
The HBOS Group Reorganization Act was passed in 2006 and the reason for the Act was to make the structure of the corporation much simpler. The Act Reorganization was completed on September 17, 2007. On March 19, 2008, the stocks took a dive of nearly 20 percent, then recovered after the Bank made a statement about their stability of the company. There had been rumors which caused the drop in the stocks.