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Banking on trust: Why building societies are facing the perfect storm

They have been touted as trusted, local lenders who take a personal approach to supporting your efforts to save and lending money to buy a home. But now, with societies reducing in number, are building societies facing the perfect storm in the current climate?

View of modern glass-fronted skyscrapers, from below looking up towards the sky. Building societies wove their way into our lives as the trusted, local lenders who would take a personal approach to support you saving and lend you the money to buy a home. Their physical presence was a key part of the brand, and is still necessary in order to get your savings pass book stamped. But societies are reducing in number, becoming banks, consolidating or withdrawing from the market.

Is this in part because we’re a more transient society, in possession of the information to select the highest savings or lowest mortgage rate with ease and the competitive market to access them, rather than pay for ethos and locality?