Death of De-Mutualisation

roddydogs

Can i cash in my £100 with several Building Socys now in the certain belief it wont be done again?

bristolleedsfan

roddydogs wrote: »

Can i cash in my £100 with several Building Socys now in the certain belief it wont be done again?

I wont be as im hoping that their will be more BS mergers in the fullness of time that produce more than zero merger payment benefit.

rbulph

B & B lasted 150 years as a mutual society and eight as a plc.

GeorgeHowell

Although the so called carpetbaggers are routinely blamed, the real blame for demutualisation lies with Margaret Thatcher for allowing it, and with the managements of the erstwhile building societies for jumping on the banking gravy train. They thought that what they did was close enough to banking that they might as well enjoy the rich rewards. It has now been proved of course that it wasn't and they couldn't hack it. I voted against every demutualisation that I could, always ended up on the losing side, took the money, and sold the shares immediately. I always had the feeling that these pseudo banks would not be able to properly compete with the big four proper banks, and so it has been proved.

It now looks as though on both sides of the Atlantic thing will come home to roost for the banking wide boys/fat cats/(not so) smart-!!!!!!. In the UK the FCSC is going to stump up for losses associated with B&B, sooner or later, which means the banks ands not the taxpayer. In the USA something similar is proposed. They will of course try to recover it all from us the general public, one way or another. This is why we need proper regulation going forward, and not the ridiculous "light touch" non-regulation of which New Labour is so fond.

opinions4u

Thatcher created the choice.

The boards (supported by members and then backed by shareholders) made the decisions.

cvd

the real blame for demutualisation lies with Margaret Thatcher for allowing it, and with the managements of the erstwhile building societies for jumping on the banking gravy train.

Agree completely. However,
(a) if there were no windfall payouts
and
(b) members were able to exert at least some control over the pay and behaviour of directors
then I believe most demutualisations would not have occurred.

But (a) and (b) go together - either one without the other would not improve things