Private Eye’s number crunching and Nationwide CEO’s “best-timed gong”
Private Eye (issue 1652, page 8) draws attention to the award of a damehood to Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide CEO, under the title of “KING’S BIRTHDAY TREATS: Honours round-up.”
If you’re a Nationwide member, and don’t agree with paying a mutual society CEO 280x what a junior member of staff receives, you may want to use your vote ahead of the upcoming AGM.
Best-timed gong is the damehood for Debbie Crosbie thanks to her “advocacy for ethical banking practices and corporate responsibility”.
Within days of the announcement, Nationwide’s board said Crosbie, who already earns £2.4m, should have a bonus plan that could take it to £6.9m. She may be fortunate the envelope from the Cabinet Office arrived some time before the pay proposal.
NUMBER CRUNCHING
£24,750
Minimum salary for employees at Nationwide, under a newly agreed pay package.
£6.9m
Possible pay package for Nationwide’s chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, under a proposed new bonus plan
The Telegraph: “Nationwide’s mutual ethos is now under threat”
My thanks to Michael Bow at the Telegraph for a long article examining the impact Dame Debbie Crosbie is having at Nationwide building society.
Read the full article here (25 June 2025): How Nationwide’s £7m boss became Britain’s most controversial banker
Michael quoted me throughout the article, sharing some of my concerns with regard to the current direction of the building society – in particular the degree to which it continues to exhibit bank-like behaviours: high and increasing executive pay; disregard for members; and the inequitable “fairer share” payments that go to a subset of members that have current accounts.
