NEW POWERS FOR OLD
BUILDING SOCIETIES DID NOT wait to be drawn into the tide of
legislation that has been sweeping away many of the traditional
regulatory barriers within Britain's finance industry. They took
the initiative by considering the new powers they would need to bring
societies into line with changing markets and, after two and a half
years of detailed discussion, the Building Societies Association
published its own 'green paper' on new legislation early in
1984.
Much of that BSA discussion document appeared in print later the
same year. Once again, it had green covers; only this time it appeared
under the title, 'Building Societies: A New Framework', and
was presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as the
government's own, formal discussion document ahead of the
Parliamentary debate, in the summer of 1986, on the new Building
Societies Bill.
Having effectively pre-drafted most of their own...
