The Origins of PIBS

PIBS (Permanent Interest Bearing Shares) were originally introduces as a way of enabling building societies to access funds from stock market investors, as they were unable raise risk capital by issuing ordinary shares on the stock market like a bank.

There have been a wide range of building societies that have issued PIBS, some of which have since demutualised and become banks, which meant their PIBS became Perpetual Subordinated Bonds (PSBs).