Early history The Coventry Permanent Economic Building Society was formed in 1884, much later than many of the large building societies. It was founded by Thomas Mason Daffern, described as a local bookkeeper. Daffern controlled the society for almost half a century, after which his son took over. Thomas had been appointed Secretary of the Leigh Mills Company in 1876 at the age of 22, a post he held for 20 years. Among the other interests he developed were as a shipping agent, auctioneer and insurance broker, and he later formed a stockbroking partnership. However, the impetus for the formation of the building society was Daffern's position as Secretary of the Coventry 178th
Starr-Bowkett Society, an early form of mutual loan society. The terminating nature of the Starr-Bowkett showed the need for a permanent entity and that was the genesis of the Coventry Economic. When Thomas resigned from Leigh Mills in 1876 he established Daffern & Co to consolidate what was now a wide range of entrepreneurial activities. He continued to run the building society, acting more as proprietor than secretary, paying the society's wages out of his personal remuneration. At the end of its first year the society had 128 members, rising to a peak of 481 in 1892, and staying at that level until the turn of the century. From then until the
First World War,
Coventry enjoyed substantial economic growth based on the success of the bicycle, car and
machine tool industries and by the start of the War membership had risen to 1,900, and assets had risen from £21,000 to £104,000. Membership continued to increase during the war and assets more than doubled. a rank it continued to hold in 2022. In May 2021, the society announced it had agreed a ten-year naming rights deal with
Coventry Building Society Arena (formerly Ricoh Arena), a major sports, events and conference venue in the city. The society achieved
B Corp certification in 2023. In December 2023 it was reported that the Coventry was negotiating a potential acquisition of
The Co-operative Bank. The purchase was confirmed in May 2024 at a price of £780million. ==Services==