A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and used to exist in Ireland and several Commonwealth countries. They are similar to credit unions in organisation, though few enforce a common bond. However, rather than promoting thrift and offering unsecured and business loans, the purpose of a building society is to provide home mortgages to members. Borrowers and depositors are society members, setting policy and appointing directors on a one-member, one-vote basis. Building societies often provide other retail banking services, such as current accounts, credit cards and personal loans. The term "building society" first arose in the 19th century in Great Britain from cooperative savings groups.
Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world.
Halifax is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is an Australian financial institution, operating primarily in retail banking. The company was formed by the merger of Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in November 2007.
The Bank of Queensland is an Australian retail bank with headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The bank is one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, having begun as a building society. It now has 163 branches throughout Australia, including 53 corporate branches and 103 "owner managed" branches.
St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be a standalone authorised deposit-taking institution.
Banking in Australia is dominated by four major banks: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank. There are several smaller banks with a presence throughout the country, and a large number of other financial institutions, such as credit unions, building societies and mutual banks, which provide limited banking-type services and are described as authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). Many large foreign banks have a presence, but few have a retail banking presence. The central bank is the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The Australian government’s Financial Claims Scheme (FCS) guarantees deposits up to $250,000 per account-holder per ADI in the event of the ADI failing.
Birmingham Midshires is an online trading name of Bank of Scotland plc. It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton. It previously had 67 branches throughout England and Wales. Previously, Birmingham Midshires was a building society, known as the Birmingham Midshires Building Society.
The Britannia Building Society was founded as the Leek & Moorlands Building Society in Leek in 1856. It expanded steadily as a regional society until the late 1950s when it began a major expansion drive, partly through branch openings but also some 55 acquisitions. The most substantial of these were the NALGO Building Society in 1960; the Westbourne Park in 1965 ; and the Eastern Counties Building Society in 1974. The Society’s name was changed to the Britannia Building Society the following year.
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P) is a trading name of Yorkshire Building Society based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Formed by the merger of the Norwich and Peterborough building societies in 1986, at the time of merger with YBS, it was the ninth largest building society in the United Kingdom, with assets in excess of £4.9 billion.
Heritage Bank Limited is Australia's second largest mutual bank. Its head office is located in Toowoomba, Queensland.
A Starr-Bowkett Society was a co-operative, non-profit financial institution that provided interest-free loans to its members and operated on the principle of mutual self-help, as espoused in 1843 by Dr T. E. Bowkett. Popular in Australia from the late 19th century until the early to mid 20th century, they no longer exist in any form.
Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales.
IMB Bank is an award-winning Australian mutual bank established in 1880. In 2020, IMB Bank was voted by Forbes as one of the World's Best Banks, and, in 2022, was found by financial services research company Canstar to have Australia's Most Satisfied Customers for both the Bank and Mutual Bank categories.
ABS Building Society Limited was a mutual building society with its head office based in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. ABS was a member of the industry body, Abacus, which represents Australian Credit Unions and building societies. ABS had an Australian Financial Services Licence providing financial services predominantly in the New England and North West regions of New South Wales, Australia. It offered financial products and services including savings accounts, term deposits, housing, commercial and personal loans and other services such as secure self-storage facilities, and delivery of Bank Statements through the Bank Link system.
Newcastle Permanent Building Society was an Australian building society, and is now a brand of Newcastle Greater Mutual Group, as a result of a merger with Greater Bank. Its head office is located in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
Cuscal Limited is an Australian company that predominantly provides transactional banking, liquidity and capital management services and products to institutional customers including credit unions, mutual banks and superannuation funds. Cuscal is regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) as an Australian authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI), and by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). It is a member of EFTPOS Payments Australia and the Australian Payments Clearing Association. Cuscal has an A+ credit rating.
Police Bank Ltd. is an Australian, member-owned mutual bank. Founded as NSW Police Credit Union (PCU) on 24 October 1964 by a group of officers from the Clarence Street Police Station in Sydney, its members passed a resolution to enable "Police Credit Union" to become "Police Bank Ltd." on 3 December 2012.
P&N Bank is a division of Police & Nurses Limited and an Australian owned bank managed in Western Australia. Operating under a mutual model, P&N Bank provides retail banking services such as savings, lending products and insurance services. With a branch network of 15 branches in Western Australia, P&N Bank also has a Perth based Contact centre, online banking facilities and is partnered with Cuscal, and is a provider of access to the New Payments Platform (NPP). As a mutual bank there are no third party shareholders; members who bank with P&N Bank and hold a share in Police & Nurses Limited are the owners of the Bank. P&N Bank is a member of COBA, the industry body that represents the credit unions, building societies and mutual banks in Australia and BCCM. P&N Bank is one of the major sponsors of the Perth Wildcats.
Hume Bank is an Australian bank. Headquartered in Albury, New South Wales, it is a customer-owned bank that started as a building society in 1955. Its business focus is on retail banking and assisting local economic development.
