In view of this morning's news about the Bank of England supporting Northern Rock, would it be helpful for EBS to put a statement on our website on its current financial stability and in particular if it normally reliies on interbank loans which are in short supply and if EBS is getting those loans?

AIUI the Ecology's position is completely unlike Northern Rock's.

The EBS is a building society rather than a bank.

See the explanation here "What's the difference between a building society and a bank?" from the Building Societies Association:

http://www.bsa.org.uk/

As the EBS has no shareholders, there can't be a run on stockmarket.

Also, at least 50% of it's assets must be loaned out as mortgages (I think it's actually 70% at the EBS currently), so it's investments are much less exposed.

At the last AGM they reported no mortgage arrears and no mortgage defaulters (that must be the best record in the business).

But most importantly, I believe virtually all the society's capital comes from individual savers.

Northern Rock was the complete opposite. They offered riskier mortgages at very high multiples of income - and the particularly risky bit - rather than raise money mostly from individual savers, they borrowed it in the form of loans from elsewhere.

Once those sources of loans started to dry up, they were in difficulty.

When the Northern Rock story hit the news, I was rather glad to have my savings in what I regard as one of the best run building societies about.