The Skipton merger with the Scarborough has widely been described as a bail-out of the latter, fuelled by the exclusion of Scarborough's name from the merged society, the headquarters being based in Skipton, and now the belief that the majority of the new board will be made up of Skipton's members.

A statement released from both societies said: "Two non-executive directors of Scarborough will join the board of the enlarged society.

"It is expected that the executive directors of Scarbor-ough will take up positions in the enlarged society, with the exception of John Carrier who will retire in December."

It is believed Scarborough chairman William Worsley is one of the two Scarborough directors who have been promised a place on the new board.

While the remaining nine board members are "expected" to be given alternative roles, the Skipton are yet to say whether any of their 12 board members will also lose their place on the board.

The Skipton's chief executive John Goodfellow is also due to retire at the end of year.

Mr Goodfellow's replacement, Skipton's corporate development director David Cutter, has been lined up as chief executive of the merged society.

It is yet to be revealed where Scarborough's finance director, Robin Litten, will fit in to the new society as he was due to take over Mr Carrier's position.

The Scarborough Building Society's weak trading position has also led many to believe the merger is a rescue attempt by the Skipton.

There is much speculation surrounding how the Scarbor-ough got into such difficulties.

The Guardian reported that in October 2006 the Scarborough launched a specialist lending service, offering "adverse buy-to-let", "heavy adverse", self-certification and other "non-conforming" mortgages.

One suggestion about the society's demise is linked to its £300 million portfolio of "prime buy-to-let and self certified assets" which it bought in July 2007 from GMAC-RFC, a firm specialising in finding home loans and selling them on to lenders.

Other lenders that dealt with GMAC included the ill-fated Bradford & Bingley, and Britannia.