As retail deposit takers, building societies are very aware of liquidity risk, as they perform a high degree of maturity transformation, and therefore maintain a good stock of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA). At the same time, their mission is to mobilise savings to finance housing, not to hold disproportionate amounts of wholesale liquid assets. So we welcome and support the Bank's engagement with this subject, with a view to enabling better use of HQLA in particular conditions. Before answering the individual questions in the DP, we set out several broad observations that we think are probably relevant in explaining the approaches taken by the majority of building societies.

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