According to media reports, mutual societies are enjoying a renaissance in the financial services sector in some parts of the world. In Japan, mutuals and co-ops have 39.2% of the insurance market and in Canada, it’s 17.4%. The Vanguard Group, the second largest money manager in the world, managing $8.4 trillion in assets is also structured as a mutual organisation. South Africa technically only has two pure-hearted mutual societies left, PPS and Avbob, following the de-mutualisation craze in the nineties which saw financial bigwigs like Old Mutual and Sanlam take their shares to market.
A mutual organisation or society is an organisation – which is often, but not always, a business – where members
