A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Letter B

Building society

An institution or organisation that is regulated by the Building Societies Act.

Building Societies are mutual organisations which are owned by their members and they are restricted to the amount of their own money which they are allowed to raise from the money markets.

Broadly speaking this means that a certain percentage of their lending has to be from their own funds ie their members money/savings.

Also the Building Societies Commission who are the governing body lays down certain restrictions on criteria that can be used for lending. Therefore building societies are less able to help with certain categories of loans than banks such as self-certification.