Parliamentary briefings

Parliamentary briefings produced by the BSA

A strong and simple framework for building societies & credit unions

Building societies specialise in savings and mortgages, while credit unions focus on savings and personal loans. Both are UK domestic with a relatively simple business model. The regulatory framework ...
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Bank of England & Financial Services Bill Committee State (Lords)

The Bank of England & Financial Services Bill 2015 offers an important opportunity to solidify within legislation the Government’s commitment to promote real diversity in the financial services sector.
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Consumers' Access to Financial Services

There have been a large number of consultations covering the area of consumer access recently, all from different angles and bodies.  There appears to be no overarching view of the issues and ultimate...
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E-petition 186565 relating to eligibility for mortgages

The debate on taking previous rent payments into account when assessing someone’s eligibility for a mortgage has received significant interest following an e-petition with over 147,000 signatures.
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Bank of England & Financial Services Bill Second Reading (Lords)

The Bank of England & Financial Services Bill 2015 offers an important opportunity to solidify the Government’s commitment to promote real diversity in the financial services sector within legislation
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Bank of England Bill: Strengthening Accountability

This briefing outlines the views of the Building Societies Association on the main areas under discussion as part of the Bill.
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Building societies supporing the Armed Forces Covenant

This briefing outlines steps being taken by the building societies sector to support service personnel through the Armed Forces Covenant.
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Creating a New Mutual Bank

In light of the challenges RBS have faced in spinning off Williams & Glyn as a separate shareholder owned bank or finding a willing corporate buyer for the business, other alternatives should be explo...
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Financial Guidance and Claims Bill (HL) Committee Briefing

We have long supported calls for a Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB) and welcome the proposal to move regulation for Claims Management Companies to the FCA. We do however have some concerns about ...
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Letter to Party Leaders - GE 2017

BSA letter to the Party Leaders ahead of the General Election
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Making Tax Digital

This briefing is provided ahead of the remaining stages of the Finance (No. 2) Bill to inform the debate. These issues apply equally to banks and building societies.
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MCD - For European consultation

At a time when the UK Mortgage Market should be settling down after the new regime and utilising the breathing space to start to innovate for the changing demands of consumers post crisis, the market ...
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Mortgages and Covid-19

In 2016 Support for Mortgage Interest changed. It changed from being a benefit to a loan and the waiting time to access it increased from 13 weeks to 39 weeks. In light of Covid-19 and the pressure o...
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National Savings & Investments future planning

NS&I's annual funding targets can be disruptive of the retail savings market if they require NS&I to attract a substantial share of new savings and can make it difficult for both banks and building so...
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Queen's Speech 2017

This page contains information about the June 2017 Queen's Speech and its impact on the building society sector.
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Savings (Government Constributions) Bill

The BSA supports the intentions behind both these schemes. Both are intended to encourage people to save and this is important in engendering financial resilience. However, we do have concerns.
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The Building Societies (Floating Charges and Other Provisions) Order 2016

The Building Societies (Floating Charges and Other Provisions) Order 2016 makes a series of consequential changes to ensure the Building Societies Act is up to date and reflects current legislation an...
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