business & finance
Local Presence, Global Impact Leeds Celebrates 6 years in Gibraltar Leeds Building Society has had a branch in Gibraltar since 2002 and, in that time, has built up a significant investor base through its branch-based products. The Society also offers 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. Martin Richardson, the Society’s General Manager for Business Development said, “Since opening for business on ‘the Rock’ in 2002 we have seen an excellent response to our presence here. In addition to bringing a new name to Gibraltar’s financial scene, we also gave borrowers in Gibraltar a greater choice of attractive and competitive mortgages. Locals and ex-pats alike were able to choose from a range of mortgages that include features not offered by our competitors. We celebrated our sixth anniversary in Gibraltar on 1st November. “We have a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable team in the Branch managed by Zoë Frendo, Operations Manager, and including Carmen Ruiz, Assistant Manager. You can find the team on the first floor of Heritage House on the Main Street in Gibraltar.” Leeds, the 7th largest UK Building Society, offers mortgages for properties in Gibraltar, Costa del Sol, Costa Brava, Costa Blanca, the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as highly competitive offshore and Gibraltar investment bonds. Zoë Frendo, Gibraltar Operations Manager said, “There are a varied range of investment accounts available, from the short term instant
Leeds is the only Building Society in Gibraltar to offer 90% loan to value 26
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access accounts with highly competitive rates, to long term fixed interest with a guaranteed return on your capital (GCA). We also offer our own children’s savings account. “The Branch offers a range of mortgage products to help customers looking to purchase their new property, move home or even change lenders and are still able to offer up to 90% loan to value against our properties in Gibraltar. Leeds is the only Building Society in Gibraltar to offer 90% loan to value. We can also help you buy your dream home in Spain with our Euro mortgage offer. “Gibraltar Branch is heavily involved within the local community and has made annual donations and sponsorships to local charities and organisations. These include the Royal Gibraltar Police Summer Crime Awareness Day and the School Photo Yearbook. The branch also provides support for international charities. We sold the Jeans for Genes Zip Pulls during September, and the Pink Ribbons for the Breast Cancer campaign during October. “In addition, during the last couple of years we have run a Fun Day at the Piazza. We raised over £130 for Childline through collection boxes on the day. There was also a Christmas Card competition where we received over 100 entries. The winning entries have now been selected and given cash prizes. Their designs will be used as the Leeds Building Society Gibraltar Christmas Card and sold in the Branch to members of the public during November and December.”
Recent studies have shown that around 20 million people visit an online dating site a month and 2 out of every 5 internet users between the ages of 24 and 50, use, or have used, online dating services of some kind to find a partner. This perhaps explains why Gibraltar-based company Bone Fish Ltd has spent the last decade taking the industry by storm and evolving a new way in which people can search for a match — and others can profit from it. The concept of online dating began in the late ’90s, and although at first it conjured negative connotations and blurred visions of dating in Cyber Space, two university graduates, Michael Fitzgerald and Graham Hampson, had the foresight to see what the online dating world was going to become — a billion dollar industry. Beginning with an initial project titled “Studentsville” — an online community where university students could interact with other individuals — and having realised the true potential sites of this nature were starting to hold, Mike and Graham went on to launch the world’s first ever “white label dating provider”. In layman’s terms, this means they created an entire platform and backbone that could be used time and time again as an affiliate programme, so as to create a number of customised niche dating sites that ranged from romance, student networking and gay, to other more risqué themes. What initially began in the back bedroom of a small flat in the outskirts of Manchester boomed from the outset and now, some nine years later, boasts some 14,000 dating sites and nearly 4 million members. Bone Fish provides its affiliates with fullybranded, pre-populated dating sites in under 24 hours, and supplies them with customer services and accounts departments to complement the already comprehensive platform they have been given to operate and run professional dating services. (And without them needing any GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2008
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