The Role of the Mortgage Lender
Understanding the Role of the Mortgage Lender
Most building societies were set up during Victorian times. Originally they were mutual organisations owned by their members and their objectives were largely altruistic. They paid a fair rate of interest to attract savers and used this money to help ordinary working people to buy their own homes. A hundred years ago very few people had any savings and building societies were the only possible source of mortgage funding for most would-be home buyers.
Today the situation is entirely different. Banks, insurance companies and specialised mortgage lenders all compete with the traditional building societies to lend money in the mortgage market. Mortgage money is in plentiful supply and building societies are wholly commercial organisations. Today mortgage money is simply another commodity.
