Improving the system of internal control through regulation: cases of small-sized building societies, circa 1960

Following the previous research conducted in Noguchi and Bátiz-Lazo (2010), this study aims to analyzes how the system of internal control entailing the effectiveness of the management and governance of building societies were improved within individual societies following the Building Societies Act, 1960 (BSA60). By specifically focusing on and comparing the process to reform the systems of internal control executed at two small-sized building societies, i.e. Lloyds Permanent and Eagle Building Societies, this study also purports to analyze how the improvement of the system of internal control affected the management and governance of both societies. The two cases examined in this study prove that an order, forbidding some activities by a building society, recognized to the CRFS under the regulation of BSA60 provided an important opportunity for the building societies to reform their systems of internal control and that the improvement of the system of internal control could have an important impact upon the management of the small-sized building societies in the UK, as a necessary condition for the withdrawal at an early stage of the order once made.