With this new legislation, building societies will finally be able to undertake new areas of business and will finally be able to offer the same services as banks. This way they can offer banking services such as foreign currency services, credit cards, “limited” unsecured loans, money transmission. They can also offer investment services like banking, such as providing investment advice, operating stockbroking services, pension funds and can also provide insurance. Furthermore, building societies, like banks, were finally granted access to the wholesale money market. But there are still some differences between banks and building societies. Building societies, by law, can only borrow up to 50% of their total funding from the wholesale market. The average amount that companies finance themselves from money markets is around 30%. Banks are not constrained in the same way. For example, in 2007 the Northern Rock bank had increased this debt ratio to 75%. It risked collapse when the amount of credit available in the money markets ran out. (The Economist, 2014) Building societies are also required to have at least 75% of their loans secured by residential collateral.