Banks

when will people understand the difference between a bank and a building society.

A bank will lend you money for your business, at a commercial rate and then share in the profitability of that business.

A building society would lend you money to buy a home, a place to live and bring up your family, and depositers would get a return on their savings but it had an element of altruism about it.

When building societies started to be banks then the rules changed, the building societies went to the wholesale markets and people were given money to make money, which they did by treating their home as an investment rather than a place to live and raise a family.

Banks are not altruistic, they are are money makers, it is not the business of a real bank to be altruistic, just as building societies should not be banks then neither should banks be building societies, they are not charitable institutes. Trust me, they should not pass on the interest rate cuts, if they stop acting as banks then we really all ought to take to the hills.