First Active

First Active Plc

Industry	Bank
Founded	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.

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:

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 . 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.