Building Society CEOs Reveal All: The Building Societies Report 2025

When Whitecap Consulting interviewed CEOs at 25 of the UK’s 42 building societies, they discovered more than just the challenges facing the sector or where CEOs are investing. They also revealed how technology is reshaping the industry.

The Building Societies Report 2025 focuses on 8 themes – from strategy and mutuality to technology, regulatory policy, and risk. Technology plays a key role throughout, but here are a few points that caught my eye.

A growing market

The report predicts that the industry will double in just over 4 years if the past year’s growth of 17% continues. This would meet the government’s goal to double the size of the market.

At the same time, digital transformation is reshaping the workforce. There are hiring and cultural shifts, as well as growing regulatory and risk management requirements that are increasing the need for skilled professionals. Building societies are bringing in external expertise as well as retraining existing employees. But technology will be key to driving efficiency and automating specific roles.

Meeting consumer demands in the mortgage market

Executives are optimistic about the role of technology in mortgages. Examples include back-office upgrades to automate tasks, reduce manual underwriting, as well as streamlining mortgage origination and servicing in the front office.

And while societies are at different stages of integrating technology into their operations, many see it as crucial for the future. For instance, some CEOs say it’s essential for attracting younger generations, while others see it as a competitive advantage that enables them to offer a streamlined, efficient service for mortgages and remortgaging.

Building relationships in a digital environment

Mutuality, personalized service, and close relationships with members are core to building societies’ appeal. However, savings customers are more willing to switch providers in for better rates, and building societies are facing more competition and commoditization. Maintaining connection and loyalty in a digital-first world will require new strategies, stronger brand storytelling, and innovative ways to bring the mutual model to life online.

The “cost” of technology

Building society CEOs frequently raised concerns about the significant costs associated with technology, whether in relation to the products themselves or the broader expenses of digital transformation. This was particularly common among small and medium-sized organizations.

Of course, there are also significant costs to maintaining legacy systems. In 2023, it was estimated that 57% of total IT budgets were allocated to maintaining legacy systems – rather than investing in innovation and modernization.

And while technology hasn’t traditionally been viewed as a competitive advantage, building societies can leverage it across the organization to speed up their time to market and offer more personalized services – while increasing cost efficiencies.

In fact, Whitecap found that the design of technology stacks is undergoing a significant transformation towards cloud-based systems, modular designs, and marketplace-driven ecosystems that increase efficiencies, automate processes, and achieve economies of scale.

The benefits of Regtech

The increasing regulatory burden limits societies’ ability to invest in other areas, such as innovation, technology, and growth initiatives. So, they are starting to embrace RegTech, AI, cloud computing and automation to streamline compliance processes, improve accuracy and reduce costs.

They’re also exploring how they can automate risk and compliance and apply AI to monitoring transactions, flagging suspicious activity, and enhancing KYC procedures.

We can see the same trends among our clients, who are eager to see the benefits of modernized technology, cloud computing, automation and AI.

But that’s just a taste of the report’s findings. Download the full report and see for yourself how building society leaders are adapting their business and technology strategies to respond to today’s challenges – and future opportunities.