[1] It removed certain restrictions on the range of services they could offer, so that they could compete with banks on a level basis: they could now make unsecured loans, offer cheque accounts, exchange currencies, provide stockbroking services, manage personal equity plans (tax-privileged investment accounts) and portfolios of unit trusts, arrange and advise on insurance, etc.

[2] A new regulatory agency, the Building Societies Commission, was set up to supervise the activities of the societies, which were allowed to de-mutualise and become public limited companies subject to the agreement of their depositors.

This act and the Big Bang stockmarket reform, also in the UK, also in 1986, were the two central planks of the move to financial deregulation in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

The Building Societies Act 1986 (Amendment) Act 2024 (c. 18) would amend this to exclude some types of funding held for liquidity purposes or accessed in stress scenarios, from this calculation.

This legislation in the United Kingdom, or its constituent jurisdictions, article is a stub.