Carpet bagging

Froggitt

In the same way that the board createth the signaway, the board can taketh it away. If the board want to demutualise, they will remove obstacles like the signaway, dobbing the charitable foundation a few hundred million or so quid as a "20% of something better than 100 of nothing"

claire07

I know it makes sense now not to hang on to some of these building society accounts but it was so awkward to open some of them in the first place that I find it hard to close them finally. It would make things easier if I decluttered a few of them. Mind you, I do tend to get carried away when I collect things! Anyone else hanging on to some of the accounts?

MacBiggles

If you have the requisite £100 (pre 2002 for Nationwide but pre-2008 merger for Cheshire and Derbyshire) it might be worth holding if only for the possibility of demut shares. Nationwide and the Co-op will survive any consolidation spasms and may be in a good position to shape the future of British banking, finding themselves relatively unscathed by anti-banker sentiment. Newcastle BS might be another candidate; they paid out £400 to every Universial BS member in 2006 and might use this for leverage in any future demut/merger event.