The board of Norwich Union Ireland is about to consider a report from corporate finance advisers Price Waterhouse on the future options for the Norwich Union Building Society. Commissioned in July, the report examined the operation of the society and assessed options for its future development. Norwich Union Ireland group managing director Mr Vincent Sheridan confirmed that the report was completed recently. He declined to comment further in advance of the board meeting.

The Norwich Union Building Society is a small mutual society managed by the Norwich Union life and general insurance group. The society is the smallest Irish building society with 25 full-time employees and total assets of about £126 million and mortgage advances of about £95 million. It is understood to have generated strong profit growth this year.

One of the future options is likely to be the sale of the society, or the transfer of its business to another mutual society. Other options could include aggressive expansion of the operation. Industry sources speculated that the building society may come on the market because it of its small scale. The society was set up in the 1970's when some life assurance companies started to provide fixed interest mortgage finance for customers in order to add fixed interest investments their portfolios.