Covers a range of topics relating to mortgages and the wider housing market.
Covers issues relating to savings accounts and payments.
Covers developments in conduct of business regulation
Covers issues relating to the corporate governance and constitution of building societies.
People related matters such as talent development, apprenticeships and diversity.
Internal and external accounting assurance and matters relating to tax.
The regulation and supervision of firms to ensure their safety and soundness under the remit of the Prudential Regulation Authority.
A new legal aid scheme to support borrowers at risk of repossession (member only content).
A wide range of statistics relating to the UK mortgage and housing markets.
Research, analysis and guidance about our members and the issues that affect them.
Retail savings data including net receipts and deposits, ISAs and interest rates.
Operational and financial information about building societies. Includes AGM & financial results and remuneration details.
Submission and publication deadlines for BSA data and reports.
Mortgage approvals pick up & further cut to Bank Rate expected this year.
News and views on topical issues from the BSA and guests.
View our latest press releases and comment here.
The BSA's quarterly magazine covers whats happening in the world of building societies, credit unions and the wider financial services sector.
A quarterly survey that assesses consumer sentiment regarding the UK property market.
View biographies and download photos of the BSA's key spokespeople
BSA speeches from events and seminars
View the latest webinars, training and other events open to members, associates and other stakeholders
View our latest BSA Annual Conference and comment here.
View our latest Past events & summaries and comment here.
Learn how to promote your event to the BSA's membership.
Treasury management training for credit unions (28th November 2024)
Find factsheets on mortgages, savings and the building society sector.
Track building societies that no longer exists and get a link to its successor's website.
Find mortgage instructions and specific requirements setting out individual building society policies.
The UK Savings Week campaign aims to get people engaged in saving.
Toolkits to develop Workplace Savings are available here.
Here you can find our publications, responses to consultation documents, mortgage instructions, statistics and sector job vacancies.
Find out more about the BSA and the sector.
Contact details for each of our 49 members.
Our Associate members include a wide range of companies from insurers, banks, accountants, solicitors, and other business suppliers to BSA members.
The National Credit Union Forum (NCUF) is the Credit Union Committee of the BSA.
View biographies and download photos of our key spokespeople
Vacancies for senior management, executive and other positions at the BSA and its member organisations
Find out the wide range of benefits of joining the BSA as an associate member.
The Building Societies Association is the voice of the UK's building societies.
Guest blog by Patricia Moore, Client Executive Lead at DXC, Financial Services
DXC Technology is a headline sponsor of the BSA of the Building Societies Annual Conference
In this guest blog, Patricia Moore, DXC’s financial services client executive lead, provides insights into how building societies can adapt to their local markets and set strategic goals, and highlights that it’s not all about ‘one size fits all’.
When I studied politics and history, I often asked myself key questions focused around “Why?”. “Patricia, why do you need to study and understand history?”, or “What impact does this have on the present in my life?” were some of the questions that came to my mind. I would be constantly thinking about many other similar questions, pondering over the reasons, and hoping I would get a straight answer. Whereas in fact, I didn’t. Because each question had a different answer as opposed to a ‘one size fits all’ mentality.
If nothing else, the past few decades have illustrated how important it is to understand what has happened and why it happened; and this concept of thought-provoking reasoning very much applies to our financial institutions, and particularly the building societies.
To understand where building societies stand in today’s economy, it is important to deep dive and understand how they evolved in the past 250 years or so since first being established in Birmingham in 1775 – adapting and evolving with the pace of digital transformation.
This adaption to digital transformation is also important when building societies are doing their best to engage with and service their ‘local’ community that have local needs that are specific to the environment or their personal requirements. On the other hand, some of the local building societies have tried their best to compete with the big banks by growing to their size; however, in doing so, some of this competition has resulted in their demise!
Therefore, adaption to transformation has been key to evolution and to provide a ‘one size fits all’ solution – from providing customers a safe haven to save money for life’s plans, such as purchasing a home or getting married – into a more flexible option which offers better services than some of the big banks.
The key question here is, does one size fit all? Maybe not, because all of the UK’s 43 building societies have their unique product offerings and have different aspirations in how they adapt and grow, and what is important to their segment of the customer base.
Some of these building societies are very much focused on their local areas and not focused on being UK-wide; while others, for example Skipton Building Society, have branches outside of their local area and do have some UK-wide branches. Indeed, it is fair to say that regionality is considered a very important part of the building society make up, especially in the UK and Ireland. A recent report by Whitecap Consulting and the Building Societies Association (BSA) found over 70% of building societies consider the branch network to be a critical part of regionality, and 90% of building societies believe community involvement is a commitment to regionality.
It is important to note that the UK’s first building society in Birmingham was born out of a tavern called The Golden Cross Inn. In a similar way, perhaps it would be great if building societies can merge with cafes, and maybe these cafes which seem to fill every high street, shopping mall, and train station can now go back to their origins? Joint bricks and mortar to serve the community? Not only would this save retail space, but also lower the operating costs and improve the customer experience because customers can go into a building society and have a chat over coffee or tea with their mortgage advisor in a more relaxed environment. Some legacy banks have recently piloted this concept to engage with some of their customers, including Capital One in the US aiming to engage with Millennials. It may be worthwhile to see if building societies in the UK may also want to try this concept, and not just for Millennials but for everyone.
Maybe you need some help with trying to get acquainted with online banking? The retail industry has seen some of this evolution already with the UK’s Post Office network, but why not get other industries involved as well to serve local communities, build relationships, gain and retain customers, and grow revenues? As I mentioned earlier, one size doesn’t fit all, and for many business models, becoming more engaged with the users to understand their thoughts may be the solution.
It is certainly worth considering how a branch network could work alongside complimentary services in the community, and how they may be the lifeline in rural areas. It is also important to point out that due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the affect it had on communities and businesses in 2020 (and continues to have in 2021), technology is there to assist and to create a better user-experience when engaging in these services. By building digital channels and enhancing customer engagement journeys, it’s fair to say that the art of the possible is becoming more realistic
And as for size? Whatever fits, as not everyone fits the mould!
*Image by DXC Technology
This webinar will cover a summary of the Employment Rights Bill, with a focus on the proposed changes that will affect Building Societies in particula...
The BSA strongly supports the principle of charging a fee to CMCs.
Our response to FCA GC23-2