Sale will cut mutuals to 2

Norwich Union Ireland's decision to seek offers for the takeover of the Norwich Union Building Society (NUBS) together with First National's plans to convert into a publicly quoted bank means there will be only two mutual building societies left in the Irish market.

Borrowers and savers will have significantly less choice if they want to do business with a mutual building society. Whether this matters much depends on whether they get better value through dealing with a mutual rather than a publicly quoted bank.

In theory, because they are owned by their members and the management is not under market pressure to grow profits for shareholders, mutuals should be able to offer loans at cheaper rates. They should also pay more for the savings of their members than publicly quoted companies. In practice, however, whether mutuals provide better value for their members is debatable. And in the Irish market there has not always been a clear advantage for the customer in dealing with a mutual society. While NUBS customers will remain members of a mutual building society only other mutuals have been invited to make proposals to take over the small society the latest market moves will mean that EBS and Irish Nationwide will be the only mutuals left. EBS is determined to remain a mutual. In 1996, it launched a "profit-sharing scheme" taking a £5 million hit on profits by raising savings rates and cutting mortgage rates to stress the benefits of mutuality.

The position of Irish Nationwide is less clear managing director, Mr Michael Fingleton, is interested in building scale. He has expressed interest in the TSB Bank and has "no objections" to going public.