Judgment day

JULY 24th may go down in history as the day Britain's building societies died. That afternoon, at the annual meeting of the largest remaining society, Nationwide, the result of a ballot for five seats on its board will be announced. If the five “rebel” candidates win, or even if they get a large share of the vote, the society may be forced to convert itself to a bank, resulting in windfall payouts to its 3.5m members of perhaps £2,000 each. And, if Nationwide goes, many of the 72 surviving societies will come under great pressure from their members to follow suit. The case that they have been trying to make for remaining as “mutuals”—owned by their customers—will have been swept aside in the dash for cash.