How to stand for election as a building society director

Building societies are mutuals: they are owned by their members, not by outside shareholders. That ownership is what makes a member nomination for the board possible at all. Members have a say in how the organisation is run, and the board that runs it is elected by the people who save with and borrow from the society¹.

The mechanics are set by each society's own rules, so the signature thresholds, deadlines and forms differ from one society to the next. What is consistent across the sector is the shape of the process: you must be a member, you must meet the society's eligibility rules, your nomination has to arrive by a deadline, the candidate has to pass a fit and proper assessment, and the members then vote at the annual general meeting².

This page sets out what a director does, who can stand, how nominations and the vote work, how board-recommended candidates differ from member nominees, and what happens if a nomination is turned down.

What a building society director does and who can stand

A building society is a mutual institution offering savings and mortgage accounts and, often, a wide range of other financial services³. The board runs it. Typically a society will have a board of between seven and 15 directors, and all directors must themselves be investing members of the society³. That last point is the one that catches people out: you cannot stand as an outsider brought in for your CV alone. You need money in the society.

Directors are approved as fit and proper and are subject to standards set by the regulator³. The board's job is the same as any regulated financial firm's board: oversight of strategy, risk and the treatment of customers, within rules set by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. You can read more about how that supervision works on our page on how UK banks and building societies are authorised and regulated.

The sector is not small. The Building Societies Association represents all 42 building societies, as well as 7 larger credit unions, and building societies operate through approximately 1,300 branches⁴. A directorship at one of these is a serious regulated role, not an honorary one.

Eligibility rules for member nominees

Membership is the gateway. You become a member when you open a savings account, or take out a mortgage with a building society⁶. Borrowers are members of their society unless the mortgage offer says otherwise, and joint account holders are all members, but only the first named person on the account is eligible to vote at the annual general meeting⁷.

That distinction matters for anyone planning to stand. If your savings or mortgage is in joint names and you are not the first named person, you are a member but you may not be able to vote, which undermines a nomination built on your own membership.

There is a separate category to be aware of. Depositors are not members and have no member rights². If you hold money with a society in a way that does not create membership, you cannot nominate directors, vote or speak at meetings. Restricted members face the same limits: they cannot vote, nominate directors or speak at AGMs³.

Some societies also apply residency or nationality conditions to particular products. Principality Building Society, for example, describes eligibility in terms of being a UK national for the product in question⁸. These conditions sit in each society's own rules, so the practical step is to read the rules of the society you are a member of rather than assume the sector is uniform.

Nominating yourself: the member signatures you need

This is the part of the process where the published guidance is thinnest, and it is worth being straight about that. The Building Societies Association's member rights guidance does not give a single sector-wide figure for the number of member signatures a director nomination requires. The rules are set by each society, and the number varies.

What the guidance does give is the scale societies expect for member-led action of a comparable kind. A request to the board to hold a special general meeting usually requires the backing of 500 or more members, who have been members for two years or more³. That is the benchmark for how much member support a society treats as significant. You can read more about that route on our page on how many members are needed to request a special general meeting.

Two practical points follow. First, the members who sign usually need to be members in their own right, with the savings balance or mortgage debt that membership requires, so a list of names from people who hold accounts in someone else's name will not do. Second, the two-year membership condition attached to special general meeting requests shows that some societies distinguish between new and established members, so length of membership can matter.

Deadlines and how to submit a nomination

Timing is driven by the society's financial year. The annual general meeting must be held within four months of the end of the society's financial year³. The majority of societies have a financial year ending in December, and usually hold their AGMs in the following April³. That gives a rough shape to the calendar: if your society runs a December year end, the window for getting nomination papers in falls in the early part of the year, ahead of an April meeting.

There is a related deadline that matters if you want to put a proposal to members rather than stand yourself. Any resolution must be submitted to the society before the end of the financial year for discussion at the following AGM³. That is a hard cut-off tied to the year end, not to the meeting date.

Members are entitled to receive a range of information, including a copy of the society's rules and memorandum on request, a copy of the annual summary financial statement, a copy of the detailed annual report and accounts, and notice of the AGM³. The rules document is where the nomination procedure, the signature requirement and the form itself will be set out. Ask for it early, because the deadline for using it comes round once a year.

The fit and proper assessment

Passing the members' vote is not the end of it. A director must be approved as fit and proper and will be subject to certain standards set by the regulator³. This is a regulatory check on the individual, separate from the election, and it applies to board-recommended candidates and member nominees alike.

In practice the assessment looks at the same ground that any regulated senior role covers: honesty, competence, financial soundness and any conflicts of interest. The society will ask for information to support that, and the regulator's standards are the benchmark. A candidate who wins the members' vote but fails the assessment cannot take the seat.

The wider conduct framework that applies to firms also shapes what a board is expected to do. Firms must comply with the customer's best interests rule and the Consumer Duty when providing policy information, and the FCA's guidance on how those rules interact was updated on 26 June 2026⁹. That is the environment a new director steps into.

How the vote works at the AGM

Building societies operate on the principle of one member, one vote³. The size of your savings account or mortgage does not increase your influence. If you are both a saver and a borrower with a society, you will still normally have just one vote, except when asked to vote on a conversion or merger, when two separate votes are given³.

Voting eligibility usually requires a minimum savings balance or mortgage debt in the account of £100, being over the age of 18, and being a member throughout the period between the end of the financial year and the date of the AGM³. Coventry Building Society, for example, tells members they must continue to owe at least £100 on a mortgage or hold savings with the Coventry up to and including the date of the AGM¹⁰. That continuous membership condition is easy to break by accident: closing an account or clearing a mortgage before the meeting can remove the vote.

Members will usually have the chance to attend annual general meetings, ask questions and vote on decisions¹¹. Skipton Building Society tells members that eligible members can vote at its AGM and could become part of its Member Panel¹². Principality Building Society says its members can take an active role by voting and attending the AGM⁸.

If you cannot attend, you can appoint a proxy to attend and vote on your behalf, and your society will probably send you a proxy form on which to indicate your wishes and how your vote can be used³. Most societies now also hold an advisory vote on the directors' remuneration report, which gives details of how much directors earn and how their remuneration is determined, although this is not required by law³.

Board-recommended candidates or member nominees: how each route differs

Both routes end at the same place: a member vote and a fit and proper assessment. The difference is who does the groundwork.

A board-recommended candidate is put forward by the society, which has already assessed the person against the role and the regulatory standards. The nomination paperwork, the supporting statement and the timing are handled by the society. The member's job is to read the papers and vote.

A member nominee does the work themselves. That means confirming their own membership and voting eligibility, checking the society's rules for the signature requirement, collecting those signatures from members who qualify, submitting the nomination before the deadline, and being ready for the fit and proper assessment. The member nominee also carries the risk that the nomination is rejected on a technical ground that a board-backed candidate would never hit.

The two routes are not equal in visibility either. Board-recommended candidates appear in the papers the society sends to every member. A member nominee depends on the same papers and on whatever else the rules allow. Members are entitled to receive notice of the AGM and the annual summary financial statement³, so the papers reach the whole membership, but the space given to each candidate is a matter for the society.

If your nomination is rejected: challenging the decision

A society can reject a nomination that does not meet its rules, and it can decline a candidate who fails the fit and proper assessment. The first step is to find out which ground was used, because the routes differ.

Ask for the reasons in writing. If the rejection rests on the society's own rules, the rules document is the test: either the nomination met the stated requirements or it did not. If the rejection rests on the fit and proper assessment, the question is whether the process was followed properly.

If you are not satisfied, use the society's internal complaints process. Banks and building societies are covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service, and discrimination is a separate matter: it is against the law for a bank or building society to discriminate against you, for example because of your race, sex, disability, religion or sexuality¹³. A complaint on that ground can go to the Ombudsman. Our page on complaining about banks and building societies explains how firm complaint figures are published, and FSCS or Financial Ombudsman: who to go to sets out which body handles what.