REPORT ON THE COSTS & BENEFITS OF A BUILDING SOCIETY CONVERTING TO A PLC At the beginning of this century there were more than 2000 building societies, fiercely independent mutual organisations, formed in the spirit of Victorian self help. There are now just 71. Some of these that have disappeared were terminating societies with a fixed wind up date. The last “terminating” society was the Fist Salisbury which wound up in 1980. Other societies have been swallowed up in take-overs or converted into banks in the great 1997 demut ....