Insider Media Limited

Egg Banking's savings division has been snapped up by Yorkshire Building Society (YBS). Egg's mortgage and savings business will be transferred to YBS just months after the Derby-based business's credit card assets were bought by rival Barclays. Egg's owner Citigroup said the deal was part of its plan to sell off non-core divisions.

Egg has a £2.5m savings book and a £430m mortgage book, which will be added to YBS' £30bn worth of assets.

YBS said it expected the acquisition to complete in the fourth quarter of 2011, subject to approval by the High Court.

The society said the additional savings will enable it to lend more to customers, while Egg's mortgages are "high quality, low loan-to-value, prime residential loans".

Iain Cornish, chief executive of YBS, said: "We are looking forward to welcoming Egg's mortgage and savings customers to the Yorkshire.

"Continuing to provide them with the outstanding service, administration and value that they have been used to, and which is consistent with our own approach, will be a priority for us and we will work closely with Egg to ensure that customers are kept fully informed throughout this transfer process."

YBS did not disclose how much it paid for the Egg businesses. The building society is also rumoured to be interested in purchasing nationalised bank Northern Rock, which the UK government aims to sell off in the next few months.

Barclays bought Egg's credit card assets from US-based lender Citigroup in March this year.

Citigroup acquired Egg from insurance group Prudential in 2007 for £575m. It said the sale of Egg's assets was part of its plan to sell off non-core divisions. The company received a huge bailout from the US government during the recession.

The news comes shortly after Barclaycard announced it would axe more than 650 jobs at the credit card company's Derby base. Barclaycard said it planned to service Egg clients from alternative customer service centres.