One of the major UK mutual building societies remaining today is the Nationwide Building Society, with headquarters in Swindon, England.

Nationwide Building Society provides financial services both directly, and through approximately 680 branches and 200 agencies. Nationwide is a major provider of both mortages and savings in the UK, as well as personal banking and commercial lending.

Nationwide is the largest of the remaining building societies. It has approximately 11 million members, 15 million accounts and employs 15,500 people across the UK. It is the only UK building society to clear its own cheques.

Facts

• 2004
  • Total assets of the Nationwide Building Society exceed £100 billion (£100,000 million), making it the largest building society in the world - a position which it has held since 1997. Its asset size placed it as the 7th largest financial organisation on the UK high street.
  • Nationwide overtakes the clearing bank Barclays to become Britain's fourth largest mortgage lender, with more than 1 million mortgage customers.
  • Savings balances of Nationwide Building Society members, more than £65 billion (£65,000 million) in total, position Nationwide as the third largest savings provider in the UK.

• 2001
  • Society Carpetbaggers propose a resolution for another vote by Nationwide members to convert the society to a bank. The resolution is rejected by the Nationwide board on legal grounds.

• 2000
  • ATM surcharge campaigning in 1999 results in withdrawals from most ATMs owned by UK banks becoming free for customers of all banks and building societies throughout the UK.

• 1999
  • Nationwide Building Society, including various UK tabloid newspapers and media, lauch a campaign against controversial ATM fees. It reaches a peak when Barclays Bank announces a plan to charge all customers of rival banks and financial providers, including those of Nationwide, £1 for every ATM cash withdrawal made from a Barclays-owned ATM. This prompts Nationwide Building Society to warn Barclays that it would take legal action against the bank if it did not back down. Nationwide claims Barclays has broken the rules of the LINK network of ATMs, which the bank had joined earlier the same year.

• 1998
  • Society members seeking a windfall, branded as Carpetbaggers by the UK media, meant Nationwide members go to vote on whether to demutualise the society and float on the London Stock Exchange. The attempt fails, despite media reports of possible pay-outs to members of around £1,000 to £1,500 each, as Nationwide members vote by a narrow margin against converting the building society into a bank.

• 1991
  • The first Visa/Delta debit card in the world is launched by Nationwide Building Society.

History

• 1987 - Nationwide and Anglia Building Society merger.

Sponsorship and football

The company is the former title sponsor of the Football League and current title sponsor of the Football Conference, the top level of the National League System, which governs competition in English football below the Premiership and Football League. It is also sponsor of the Mercury Music Prize.

External link

• http://www.nationwide.co.uk