Building Societies Association
Feature
Diverse building society boards
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Contact: Joseph Thompson Date: 30 Jun 2010 |
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Analysis of building society boards in 2009 suggests that they are more diverse than many boards of publicly quoted companies, and show that societies draw on a wide range of professional expertise, skills and experience from a diverse set of directors to help to ensure they are run for the benefit of their members.
For example, 14.0% (13.8% in 2008) of all building society directors were female compared to 12.2% of FTSE 100 directors (11.7% in 2008), and just 7.3% of FTSE 250 directors (7.0% in 2008).
Across the UK’s 52 building societies at the time of reporting, there were 450 directors, of which 137 were executive directors and 313 were non-executives. Non-executive directors are not involved in the day-to-day running of the society, but monitor the activities and strategy of the society.
On average, each society has a board of eight or nine directors, with two or three of them being executive directors and six non-executive directors. This compares to the average FTSE 100 board which has on average more than 10 directors, with three to four of them being executive directors, and seven non-executives.
The average age of building society executive directors was 50.6 years old, and the average age of a non-executive was 58.7 years. This compares to directors at FTSE 100 companies where executives were on average 51.1 years old and non-executives are 60.0 years old.
Building society executive directors had served 7.2 years, on average, and non-executives had served 7.1 years. FTSE 100 directors had served 5.3 years for executives and 4.4 years for non-executives.
Based on publicly available information, building society directors between them hold 153 professional accountancy or financial qualifications, 78 banking or insurance qualifications, 42 legal qualifications, and 25 surveyor / valuation qualifications.
On top of this, many other non-executive directors bring extensive experience and valuable skills from other fields to the building society boardroom to help provide effective direction.
Note: All data is drawn from annual reports published by building societies for financial years ending between 3 February 2009 and 1 February 2010. The FTSE 100 and 250 information is taken from the Female FTSE Report 2009, published by the Cranfield University School of Management:
