– United Kingdom, largest building society Cooperative banks Credit unions Friendly societies Mutual healthcare providers such as Benenden Healthcare Society – United Kingdom Mutual insurance/assurance companies Current: see Mutual insurance#List of mutual insurance companies Former: Gjensidige ASA – Norway Metropolitan Life – United States Principal Financial Group – United States Prudential – United States Mutual savings banks Protection and indemnity insurance Savings and loan associations Stokvels Some mutual financial institutions offer services very similar to (if not the same as) those of a commercial bank. In some markets, mutuals offer very competitive interest rates and fee tariffs on savings and deposit accounts, mortgages and loans. The members who save and borrow with the mutual ultimately own the business. Conversion Mutualization or mutualisation is the process by which a joint stock company changes legal form to a mutual organization or a cooperative, so that the majority of the stock is owned by employees or customers. Demutualization (or privatization) is the reverse process, in which a mutual may convert itself to a non-mutual through the process. This process became increasingly common in the 1980s as a result of deregulation. In the United States, conversion may be full, to a public company, or, in many states, partial, to a mutual holding company. See also Consumer cooperative Corporatization Employee ownership Market socialism Mutualism (economic theory) Producer cooperative References External links Are mutuals an endangered species? — Swiss RE article on the result of demutualization activity. Mutual insurance in the 21st century: back to the future? – Swiss RE Report on the near collapse of the Equitable Life Assurance Society (Commissioned by the UK House of Commons, 2001)