Payment of mortgage proceeds

My friend has applied to his bank for a small mortgage of €30,000, to cover some home improvements he is making.
The bank have approved the application 'in principal' but are insisting that the cheque be made payable to the builder and will not lodge the money in my friends current account.
Is this normal - I would have thought that he would be entitled to have the money lodged in a bank account?

The bank can decide how they pay the funds to him, they are the ones advancing the money and making the conditions. It's because they want to be sure that is what the money is being spent on. It's a difficulty if he is using many different tradesman and not one builder but maybe bank will pay it to several different people.