Building society

A building society is a financial institution, owned by its members, that offers banking and other financial services, especially mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdom and some other countries.
The term building society first arose in the 18th century, in the United Kingdom, from co-operative savings groups. In the UK today building societies actively compete with banks for most personal banking services, especially mortgage lending and deposit accounts. At the start of 2008, there were 59 building societies in the UK, with total assets exceeding £360 billion.[1] Every building society in the UK is a member of the Building Societies Association. The number of societies in the UK fell by four during 2008 due to a series of mergers brought about, to a large extent, by the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007-2010, three further mergers took place in 2009, and another three mergers took place in 2010 leaving the current number of societies at 49.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 1980s and 1990s
2 List of building societies
2.1 United Kingdom
2.1.1 Current
2.1.2 Demutualised
2.1.3 No longer exist
2.2 Australia
2.3 Ireland
2.4 Jamaica
2.5 New Zealand
2.6 Other countries
3 Operational differences from banks
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links



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