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Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Bill

I think that my hon. Friend is on to a good point. There is a distinction between members of a mutual society and shareholders in a company. The Abbey National used to be a building society with members, whose interests were bought out when it became a company; the company was then taken over by Banco Santander. What we are discussing in this instance is the possibility of a mutual building society being taken over by a European bank which is a company, and members of the building society in the United Kingdom being disadvantaged by what happens in the operation of that organisation elsewhere in Europe.