Credit unions are perhaps the most common form of people to agree to invest their money together, and to make loans to members. Thus it operates like a local, small-scale bank. Some credit unions, however, have grown so large that they have lost the characteristics of a small organization, namely effective community or membership control, and operation primarily in the interests of the membership. This is even more the case with building societies, which also started from a community base to provide people with an alternative mechanism for saving and purchasing a home , many building societies have become indistinguishable from the major bank, and some have even changed their names accordingly.