What is the difference between a bank and a building society?

What is the difference between a Bank, Building Society and a Credit Union?

• Here in Australia, we have the big banks, the small banks, the building society and 'Credit Unions' i know what banks are...but what are Building socioties (like heritage) and Credit Unions (like queensland teachers CU)???

• Answer:

  Generally speaking, a bank is a for-profit institution that has stockholders. The type of financial services they can provide varies from country to country. A building society is a non-profit organization that serves its members. "In Australia, building societies evolved along British lines. Because of strict regulations on banks, building societies flourished until the deregulation of the Australian financial industry in the 1980s. Eventually many of the smaller building societies disappeared, while some of the largest (such as St. George) officially attained the status of banks." Click on link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_society A credit union is a financial cooperative. Click on the first link below for an international definition of credit unions and on the second link for another explanation: http://www.woccu.org/about/creditunion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_unions Hope this helps. Good luck!