What a great day for Building Societies, with new research from the BSA showing both lending activity and deposits going up, and a considerable jump in customer service ratings across the mutual sector.

The BSA says “In just three months, consumer views of the service they receive from banks and building societies have swung markedly in favour of building societies and other mutual lenders and deposit takers.”

A new question concerning ethics found 62% of customers agreed that mutuals had high ethical standards, and the leap ahead of plc banks on all customer service factors has been marked.

Hilary McVitty says of the last three months “We were rather taken aback by the degree of movement.  Strong feelings are clearly being expressed here by consumers.”

With the scandals engulfing our big banks these last few months – from computer meltdown to Libor to misselling PPI to laundering money to drugs cartels and terrorists – we can’t say we’re surprised!

For many people, the recent run of scandals has been the final straw for their relationship with the big banks, and we’ve seen a huge wave of customers moving their money.

Adrian Coles, Director-General of the Building Societies Association, says “Mutuals are currently enjoying a sustained increase in lending activity, and an increase in deposits from savers.”

During a month where bank lending fell by 9%, gross lending by mutuals rose by 44%. This follows a strong year on year trend, and takes market share of mutuals up to 24%.

Go the mutuals!