BSA comments on Government intervention to support lending
Commenting on the Government’s intervention to support lending announced today, Adrian Coles, Director-General of the Building Societies Association, said:
“We welcome this package – any moves to improve confidence in UK banking and the UK housing market are welcome.
“We believe the asset protection scheme should – as a matter of principle – be made available to all building societies, just as the earlier Government recapitalisation measures were – even though it is unlikely that societies will need to resort to it.
“We also hope that the forthcoming Budget will include measures to support the flow of retail funds into deposit takers, given the support for wholesale funding announced today.
“Northern Rock bank has today announced that it is slowing its rate of mortgage redemptions. We await its detailed plan, but would have concerns if Northern Rock bank were to aggressively increase its lending, particularly if this was to be funded by retail savings – a market in which we are already concerned about unfair competition from Government-backed entities.”
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1. The Building Societies Association (BSA) represents all 55 building societies in the United Kingdom. Building societies have total assets of £380 billion and, together with their subsidiaries, hold residential mortgages of £250 billion, more than 20% of the total outstanding in the UK. Societies hold about £235 billion of retail deposits, accounting for more than 20% of all such deposits in the UK. Building societies also account for about 37% of all cash ISA balances. Building societies employ over 51,500 full and part-time staff and operate through more than 2,000 branches.
2. Photographs of Adrian Coles are available from the BSA press office, or from the Association’s website at www.bsa.org.uk or Headlinemoney www.headlinemoney.co.uk
Contact:
Rachel Le Brocq, BSA Press and Public Affairs Manager
Tel: 020 7520 5905 Mob: 07773489644 email@ rachel.lebrocq@bsa.org.uk
THE BUILDING SOCIETIES ASSOCIATION
Website: http://www.bsa.org.uk
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