Barbara Casu is the Director of the Centre for Banking Research at Cass Business School, City University London, where she is Professor of Banking. Her research interests are in the areas of banking, financial regulation, corporate governance and industrial organisation. Barbara has published over 30 papers in international peer reviewed journals, including the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.

Andrew Gall is the Economist at the Building Societies Association, the trade body for all UK building societies.

This book presents an analysis of the role of UK building societies, their strengths and weaknesses, and their contribution to the industry, at a time where public confidence in banking is low. Chapters present the results of an empirical analysis of the comparative performance of UK building societies, since the large-scale demutualisation process ended in the year 2000. The authors highlight the substantial impact of the financial crisis on the sector, with 2008 and 2009 being particularly difficult years.  The book discusses banks and building societies in the context of the improving economy and show that both groups have recovered some profitability, although not at the pre-crisis level. The reader will discover that building societies in particular have recovered well from the financial turmoil and they appear less risky than banks on a variety of measures.