Demutualisation

Definition of 'Demutualisation'

The process building societies go through when they convert to banks and thus go from being owned by their members (the borrowers and savers of the society) to being a Public Limited Company owned by shareholders.
There are pros and cons of changing from a building society into a Public Limited Company, one of the pros being that current savers with the building society recieve handsome one-off payments, often in the form of shares in the newly-formed company.

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