1861 defunct 2010 headquarters formerly throughout ireland hq in dublin number of employees 700 2004 parent ulster bank group ultimately royal bank of scotland group website www.firstactive.ie first active was an irish bank and former building society which was merged into ulster bank in late 2009 ceasing trading in february 2010 . it traditionally offered a range of mortgages including subprime mortgages savings investment pension and life assurance products but from 2007 onwards also offered credit cards atm accounts and current accounts as well as online banking and laser maestro debit cards . history edit first active was founded in 1861 as the workingman s benefit building society . it was incorporated in ireland in 1875 under the building societies act 1874 . in 1960 the name of the society was changed to first national building society . over a period of years first national grew both organically through expansion of its branch network and by the acquisition of the business of five small building societies grafton savings and building society acquired in 1974 the guinness permanent building society acquired in 1984 ireland benefit building society acquired in 1984 irish life building society acquired in 1993 and postal service permanent building society acquired in 1985 . 1 in 1994 first national acquired mortgage trust limited a uk centralised mortgage lending business . in 1995 a deposit taking subsidiary commenced business in guernsey channel islands . the group s uk operations were expanded in 1996 through the acquisition of the mortgage corporation . a retail deposit taking operation was established in england in 1996 to obtain sterling deposits to fund the group s growing mortgage business in the uk . at the 1998 annual general meeting the members voted to convert to a public limited company and to list the company shares on the irish and london stock exchange . conversion occurred on 7 september 1998 the shares were listed on 6 october 1998 and simultaneously the company raised ir 132 million in new capital from existing members and from the institutional markets . between september 2000 and december 2002 first active sold its investments in first active financial in the uk to britannic assurance plc. from the 1990s it used an advertising campaign which involved contradicting received knowledge about finance . examples included the first active representative telling most people that there s no need to keep switching mortgage companies finding whoever said that you need to keep switching mortgages in order to get the best deal and finding where it is written that it takes ages to get a decision on your mortgage . on 5 january 2004 first active became a wholly owned subsidiary of the royal bank of scotland group which also owns ulster bank . the same year tesco bank also began offering products provided by first active . on 26 january 2009 it was announced that first active would cease to operate as a separate entity and its operations would be merged with those of ulster bank with the loss of 750 jobs 550 in the republic of ireland and the balance in northern ireland . from september 2009 it ceased offering any new products to customers in preparation for the merger . references edit irish banking federation list of building society changes external links edit ulster bank republic of ireland company website www.firstactive.ie v t e banks of the republic of ireland allied irish banks bank of ireland danske bank permanent tsb kbc bank ireland rabobank ireland ulster bank v t e commercial and retail banks in the united kingdom banking in the united kingdom barclays barclays bank barclays wealth cybg clydesdale bank yorkshire bank hsbc holdings first direct hsbc bank hsbc private bank m & s bank lloyds banking group1 bank of scotland bank of wales birmingham midshires halifax lloyds bank royal bank of scotland group2 adam and company child & co. coutts & co. drummonds bank natwest royal bank of scotland ulster bank santander group cahoot cater allen santander uk wholly state owned national savings and investments post office money uk financial investments uk asset resolution bradford & bingley3 nram3 other airdrie savings bank al rayan bank aldermore allied irish bank gb first trust bank arbuthnot latham & co secure trust bank bank and clients bank of ireland butterfield bank cambridge & counties bank c. hoare & co close brothers group the co operative bank smile danske bank duncan lawrie handelsbanken harrods bank icici bank uk julian hodge bank kingdom bank kleinwort benson metro bank monzo onesavings bank raphaels bank reliance bank n m rothschild & sons sainsbury s bank sg hambros shawbrook bank standard chartered tesco bank triodos bank tsb unity trust bank virgin money big four banks are underlined and private banks are shown in italics 1 10 % owned by ukfi 2 73 % owned by ukfi 3 mortgage assets only v t e the royal bank of scotland group banking current adam & company child & co. coutts & co. drummonds bank isle of man bank natwest the royal bank of scotland rbs international ulster bank former williams & glyn s bank citizens financial group international westminster bank national westminster bank usa loans and mortgages jamjarcars lombard the one account investment banking rbs securities board of directors sir philip hampton chairman ross mcewan group ceo sir sandy crombie ewen stevenson alison davis penny hughes morten friis brendan nelson baroness noakes robert gillespie aileen taylor annual group revenue 19.7 billion gbp 2013 employees 118 600 stock symbol lse rbs website www.rbs.com v t e building societies in the republic of ireland subsidiary leeds building society ireland nationwide uk ireland demutualised first national ics now part of bank of ireland irish permanent ebs a subsidiary of allied irish banks irish nationwide merged into irish bank resolution corporation retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title first active & oldid 730996298 categories banks of irelandfinancial services in the republic of irelandroyal bank of scotland groupbanks established in 18611861 establishments in ireland navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 july 2016 at 06 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. 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