The Times: “he is asking a lot of the right questions.”
My thanks to Patrick Hosking at The Times for putting Nationwide’s recent “big thank you” payment under scrutiny, and for this final paragraph.
Read his article in the Times: Nationwide is paying out £600m to its members. But should it be? (19 March 2025)
I rather liked this final paragraph:
“Sherwin-Smith is too purist about those cash payments, but he is asking a lot of the right questions. Members who want to nominate him as a board director can find him on james4nationwide.co.uk. Nationwide does need to explain better where it is going, how it allocates rewards and why.”
Screenshot of the first few paragraphs of the article below.
Daily Mail: Nationwide forced to defend £50 takeover reward
My thanks to Patrick Tooher and Jane Denton for writing this article for the Daily Mail (online edition: This is Money).
It follows a longer post I wrote about the “Big Thank You” payment: The Big Nationwide “Thank You”: £50 for what and why?
You can read the article in full here: Nationwide forced to defend £50 takeover reward (17 March 2025)
Patrick and Jane quoted me as follows:
James Sherwin-Smith, who led the campaign for a vote and wants to join the Nationwide board, said the society should be more ‘upfront’ about how its reserves, which belong to members, are used.
‘Nationwide has a habit of doing something first, and then asking or ignoring members afterwards,’ he added.
‘This “thank you” payment is another example of why members should be more engaged, and their perspectives better represented,’ he said.
He also fears the final bill for buying and integrating Virgin Money could top £5billion.