Can You Trust the Building Societies? ; They Boasted They Were Better Than Greedy Banks, but the Credit Crunch Also Tarnished Britain's Mutuals

Summary

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THEY like to claim the moral high ground over the bad old banks. That being owned by members rather than by shareholders obsessed with profits means they can be more focused on getting it right for customers.

Or so the argument goes.

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Extract

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Can You Trust the Building Societies? ; They Boasted They Were Better Than Greedy Banks, but the Credit Crunch Also Tarnished Britain's Mutuals

But the credit crunch proved many building societies were just as greedy for growth and as prone to mismanagement as the worst of their banking rivals. And in many cases, societies met the same fate - they went out of business or had to be rescued.

Nationwide, the giant of the mutual sector, swallowed the failing Cheshire, Derbyshire and parts of Dunfermline during 2008 and 2009. Skipton took over Scarborough while Catholic was folded into Chelsea, and ...

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