Talk:Building society

message: In the Netherlands, organisations exist which are called 'woningbouwvereniging'. (w:nl:woningbouwvereniging) Literally translated, that word means 'building society', but it functions quite different from a UK building society. 
The Dutch woningbouwvereniging is a not-for-profit society that builds and manages houses and flats it lets to its members or to others. Most of them were founded about a century ago to fight poor housing conditions for workers. There success is linked to the Woningwet law of 1901, which provided for government loans to these societies, that financed a considerable part of all building activity. 
I wonder if an organisation like that exists only in the Netherlands, or if anybody knows of similar organisations in other countries. 
Johan Lont 10:54, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, belated reply: such an organisation sounds pretty much identical to a British housing association. AnIco 01:25, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Netherlands

message: What do the stars mean after some of the building societies in the table - I can't see a footnote anywhere? 82.211.86.2 09:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Starred Names in the List? 

message: Template: has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. — mholland (talk) 21:05, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  TfD nomination of [[:Template:{{ucfirst:Scottish Building Societies}}]]

message: The current main sections are:
1 Origins
2 1980s and 1990s
3 List of building societies in the United Kingdom that have demutualised
4 List of building societies in the United Kingdom that no longer exist
5 Remaining building societies in the United Kingdom
6 Other countries
This doesn't seem to be a particularly useful structure, and hides the current building societies at the bottom of the page. Further, the distinction between the building societies that no longer exist, and those that have demutalised seems superficial. In all cases the former building society became all or part of a new bank or building society. I propose that the structure be changed to:
1 History
1.1 1980s and 1990s
2 List of building societies in the United Kingdom
3 List of former building societies in the United Kingdom
4 Other countries
The column headings would be Name, Fate, Successor and Year
Thelem (talk) 23:18, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I concur - this would be a great improvement to the current structure.  MarkyMarkD (talk) 20:39, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have re-ordered the sections as this is the easiest change and easily revertable if it is decided that the old order is better. I will continue to monitor this page and consider merging the no longer exist/demutualised tables in due course  and taking into account feedback here. Thelem (talk) 22:54, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Page structure 

message: I really don't understand why you have made these major changes to the structure of the table included within this article.
As an aside, your edit re Dunfermline is simply wrong.  Nationwide did not acquire all of Dunfermline's assets.  They only cherry-picked the ones they wanted and they left the government with the rump of "bad" assets.
Regarding the layout, a single vertical list made sense and was how it's been structured for a long time.  A dual column list doesn't improve anything.
If a single society ceases to exist in future, it will require possibly 51 difficult edits - moving items around the page.  Currently, it just requires the renumbering of items in the list and deletion of one line.
Please explain here why you think this edit is better and see what others think before making another change this destructive to the page.
MarkyMarkD (talk) 23:03, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Major changes on 18 September 2009 

message: Hi. It seems to me that the paragraph beginning with "In their heyday,..." could be a bit more precise: there is no way to know when all this happened. When was the heyday? Which are the "succeeding decades"? --Bretelle (talk) 12:14, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  About history 

message: I see Bausparkassen are listed as equivalents of bs in Germany. Although the literal translation works, a Bausparkasse is not necessarily mutual (which is the point with a bs, for my understanding), but it offers a particular product, called a Bausparvertrag, which links savings and mortgage (basically, you save X Euro with low interests and are then entitled to borrow another X Euro for low interests). What really is similar to a bs, is a Sparkasse, which is a mixture of a sort of charity run by the council and offers banking, with an emphasis on savings and mortgages. It not the same as a bs, but much closer than a Bausparkasse.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.11.52.182 (talk) 19:23, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Germany 

message: I know little of the banking industry but the article says:
   United States: In the United States, savings and loan associations have a similar organisation and purpose.
Wouldn't UK Building Societies be more similar to American Credit Unions ? If not why not ? 208.106.84.43 (talk) 02:36, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Credit unions exist in the UK also, and they are quite different from building societies.  Credit unions tend to be smaller, more local institutions, with few or no branches.  They only do business with members, whereas building societies, although they are mutual organisations, also take deposits from non-members.  Historically building societies (like S&Ls) focussed on savings for, and mortgages for, house purchase.--Mhockey (talk) 17:26, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: This information—the differences and similarities between building societies and credit unions—should be put into the article. I came to WP to find out what the difference is, found absolutely nothing in this article, absolutely nothing in the credit union article, and then, finally, the truth (I assume) here on the talk page. It needs to be in the article.—Jim10701 (talk) 00:33, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  More similar to USA's S&L or to Credit Unions ? 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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