Especially, as it was not that long ago that the doomsayers were saying that the building societies were finished and that their business model had no place in the current market.
Just look what has happened in the last few months: Leeds, Yorkshire and Accord, Coventry, and Nationwide and The Mortgage Works have all played a major role in the market this year.
Indeed, the whole sector seems to be making a comeback. Even the smaller societies seem to be increasing their lending, with a number going back into high LTV lending of up to 95%.
Nationwide’s recent results show a 19% jump in product sales on the same period last year, while their total assets increased by 21% to £166bn.
This is likely to be expanded next year, as only last month Nationwide bought a significant amount of the Bank of Ireland’s mortgage portfolio, so gaining another 1,400 mortgage customers – and it doesn’t look like its acquisition trail will end there.
A key to the success of the mortgage market is more competition and more supply, and the building societies seem to be filling this gap.
Of course, the building societies come from a different background to the banks and, with no shareholders to answer to, they will have a different set of priorities, potentially allowing a more flexible approach.
As the economic conditions become tougher and more changeable, this flexibility is likely to enable them to evolve in a way that more rigid structures cannot.
Following a series of mergers, the sector appears to be emerging in a strong position.
Not only that but many building societies have expressed strong commitments to the intermediary market, not least the Coventry’s pledges to brokers, including no dual pricing, to give two days’ notice of product withdrawals and a commitment not to cross sell.
These measures are leading the way and will help ensure that the sector has a positive future.
The upshot of all this is that it looks like the building societies will take significantly more market share during the current financial year and they are ideally placed to expand upon this in 2012.
More competition will make our market more vibrant, creating more options for advisers and helping to ensure that we keep the mortgage market alive, providing clients with the solutions they need.
Jon Round is chief executive of First Complete
