Leeds Building Society and Tenet team up to serve overseas market

Leeds Financial Services Overseas Ltd (LFSO), a new subsidiary of Leeds Building Society has teamed up with a leading Yorkshire financial services company to expand the Society’s business model overseas.

Tenet, a Leeds based independent compliance and support services company for financial services organisations and advisers, has received permission to passport advice abroad and will support LFSO in meeting the needs of clients in Gibraltar and southern Spain, with the opportunity to extend to other EU countries at a future date.

The office of National Statistics recently confirmed that around 198,000 Britons left for foreign shores over the last year with Spain being the second most popular destination. As more and more people in the UK have emigrated abroad, there is a growing population of expats who would value and prefer to receive financial advice from UK registered advisers, who are widely viewed as operating within one of the world’s strictest, but most respected regulatory regimes.

Kim Rebecchi, Chairman of Leeds Financial Services Overseas Ltd says; "Leeds Building Society has had a branch in Gibraltar since 2003 and, in that time, has built up a significant investor base through its branch based products. We also offer Sterling and Euro mortgages to UK residents, UK expatriates and Gibraltarians looking to purchase a holiday home, a second home for retirement or a permanent residence and last year, following customer demand, extended our lending operation to include the Costa Del Sol, Costa Brava, Costa Blanca, Canary and Balearic Islands.

"We have launched this service to meet the demand for a UK standard Financial Planning service, which is regulated by the FSA in the UK and FSC in Gibraltar, and we have a fully qualified Financial Planning Manager based at our Gibraltar branch. We also plan to be able to provide the expatriate community in Spain with access to this service later this year."

Keith Richards, Group Distribution and Development Director of Tenet comments: "The potential market for professional financial advice abroad is one that has yet to be capitalised on and we are delighted to be supporting Leeds Financial Services Overseas in this exciting new initiative. Tenet’s innovative approach for LFSO will form a base from which it will be able to offer services to advisers operating elsewhere in the EU."