ABSTRACT

Th e Origins Although the purpose of the present chapter is to show how British building societies might constitute a viable alternative to the failed business model that was exposed in British banking post-2007, it would be a mistake to consider that this was always the case. Originally, building societies were not banks. ey were nancial institutions of another, specialized kind. ey were a mix between a savings bank and a cooperative mortgage lender. It is only belatedly (in the third quarter of the twentieth century) that they were allowed to expand beyond mortgage lending and become more bank-like.