Mutuals close to becoming Solvency II- ready

"Mutual ordinary deferred shares" or Mods are instruments which would behave like bonds, with a capped coupon, but be loss-bearing for regulatory purposes, according to The Financial Times. This is a structure which "ticks all the boxes", according to one building society chief executive. Building societies have spent months trying to devise capital structures to comply with Solvency II, the European capital requirements directive. Owned by their members, not by shareholders, they cannot replicate bank-style instruments which allow debt to be converted into equity in times of crisi...