The Sunday Times ‘Money’ section ran an opinion piece by Irish Mortgage Brokers on Mutual Building Societies in which we lamented the end of an era but made the point that the benefits of mutuality no longer exist given the market we are in.

Mutual building societies have an interesting history but their purpose was ultimately financial intermediation which is what banks nowadays perform, that, along with pricing and the test of the market have shown that Mutuals no longer have a place in the market on the basis of their structure, rather the market requires firms that exist on the basis of competition just like anybody else.