There are about 80 BS mutuals left and many of them have that clause or something similar written into the application. Some of them went crazy and demanded balances of £1K. The demutalisation play seems to have gone away and a few insurance/pension companies could have to demutualise one day. My kids done very well out of it and they still have a load of BS accounts with £100 in them just in case. smicker
Free movement of services only means that providers cannot be restricted from offering services more widely. t does not compel providers to offer services where they do not wish to.
Andrew\McGee
Bitstring , from the wonderful person DB. said
The answer can be found at
But is the converse true? The Halifax used not to be in the BSA.
The Royston Vasey Building Society only serves local people.
In message , Terry Harper writes
Thats right, I remember describing financial institutions as being made up of Banks, Building Societies and the Halifax! (Despite them being a b/soc at the time - they just behaved differently!).
To answer your point though, my understanding is that all the remaining building societies ARE members of the BSA.
Terry Harper asked:
I imagine the Halifax felt that, being so large, it had no need for the BSA. Those mutuals that remain probably value BSA membership as a source of common services. Thanks to GSV for the URL.
This isn't Ipswich's biggest problem, however.
The Halifax gave mortgages about 0.5% cheaper than the BSA members. I think that they objected to being told what to charge by the cartel. Their size gave them the luxury of being independent.
I have never found Ipswich Building Society particularly attractive so went with another building society which I am very happy with - Mabon Dane
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