Nationwide Building Society - History

History

The building society's predecessor, the Co-operative Permanent Building Society had assets of £670 million and over one million members in 1969. A year later it changed its name to Nationwide Building Society - the name was suggested by the then chairman, Leonard E. H. Williams, and borrowed from the BBC current affairs programme, Nationwide. In 1975, the engagements of the Marlborough Building Society were transferred to Nationwide.

In 1987, the Anglia Building Society merged with the Nationwide. The new society was known as Nationwide Anglia Building Society at first, but the word Anglia was dropped in 1992. The merger also resulted in the now-familiar Nationwide logo. The new Society subsequently absorbed the City of Derry Building Society (not to be confused with the current Society of that name, until 2001 known as the Londonderry Provident).

Nationwide became the first building society in the world to issue the Visa/Delta debit card, in 1991, joining the banks Barclays, TSB and Lloyds Bank which had already been providing them. Nationwide launched the UK's first internet banking service on 27 May 1997.

In 1998, society members seeking a windfall, branded as carpetbaggers by the UK media, meant Nationwide members had to vote on whether to demutualise the society and float on the London Stock Exchange. The attempt failed, despite media reports of possible pay-outs to members of around £1,000 to £1,500 each, as Nationwide members voted by a narrow margin of 33,700 against converting the building society into a bank.

In the same year, Nationwide piloted the use of iris recognition in cash machines at its Swindon headquarters, although the project was cancelled due to not being cost effective.

In 1999, Nationwide, together with various UK tabloid newspapers and media, launched a campaign against controversial cash machine fees. The campaign reached a peak when Barclays Bank announced a plan to charge all customers of rival banks and financial providers, including those of Nationwide, £1 for every cash machine withdrawal made from a Barclays-owned cash machine. This prompted Nationwide to warn Barclays that it would take legal action against the bank if it did not back down. Nationwide claimed Barclays had broken the rules of the LINK network of cash machines, which the bank had joined earlier in the year. The following year, withdrawals from most cash machines owned by UK banks were made free for customers of all banks and building societies throughout the UK.

Society carpetbaggers proposed a resolution in 2001 for another vote by Nationwide members to convert the society to a bank. The resolution was rejected by the Nationwide board on legal grounds.

In 2004, Nationwide overtook the clearing bank Barclays to become Britain's fourth largest mortgage lender, with more than 1 million mortgage customers.

The building society experienced a security breach in 2006 that potentially compromised the personal information of members after a society laptop computer was stolen from an employee's home during a burglary in August 2006. No customers lost any money as a result but the building society was fined £980,000 by the Financial Services Authority in 2007 after an enquiry into the theft exposed security flaws. On 20 February 2007 it was reported that this fine would be paid by Nationwide's members rather than by the directors who were directly accountable.

On 1 April 2007 Graham Beale (Group Finance Director) took over as Chief Executive following the retirement of Philip Williamson. Nationwide completed a merger with the former Portman Building Society on 28 August 2007.

In September 2008 Nationwide confirmed a merger between themselves, The Derbyshire and the Cheshire Building Societies - with the successor society being known as the Nationwide Building Society with the Derbyshire and Cheshire retaining their own branding and products. Nationwide merged with the Derbyshire Building Society on 1 December 2008 - the Derbyshire became a trading division of the Natiownide. On 15 December, the merger with the Cheshire Building Society was officially completed and the Cheshire also became a trading division.

On 7 March 2009 a protest was held in Bagshot, Surrey against the closure of the local branch of Nationwide, the village's only bank.

On 24 March 2009 Nationwide opened a direct savings branch in Dublin, Ireland called Nationwide UK (Ireland).

On 30 March 2009 Nationwide agreed to purchase the branches, deposits and good loans of Dunfermline Building Society.

From 6 May 2009 Nationwide began to pass on the Visa fee for credit card transactions conducted outside Europe. Debit and credit card customers began to be charged from 1 June 2009. There had previously been no fee for transactions conducted abroad on Nationwide credit or debit cards.

On 25 November 2009 Nationwide won the Office of Fair Trading test case regarding the fairness and legality of its unauthorised overdraft charges on its current account, the FlexAccount.

In September 2010 Nationwide CEO, Graham Beale, closed his e-mail address following huge numbers of e-mails from customers about proposed changes to the company's FlexAccount. A new e-mail account was opened a few days later, following adverse publicity in the press.

In September 2011 Nationwide took their first steps into customer-facing social media, with launch of an official YouTube channel, followed in April 2012 with the launch of a Facebook page.

In October 2011, in one of the first instances of paid product placement since a ban on such advertising was lifted, a Nationwide cash machine appeared in an episode of Coronation Street.