Elect James Sherwin-Smith to represent Nationwide building society members
I gave the following speech to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud & Fairer Financial Services at the Palace of Westminster on Monday 15th June 2026. A sample of the slides used in a presentation to the Transparency Task Force on Tuesday 9th June 2026 also accompanied my speech – see TTF event […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Member Nominated Candidate at Nationwide for more than 20 years
• Nationwide removed website addresses and QR code from Election Address before distributing it to Members
• Historic Nationwide AGM materials show previous Member Nominated Candidates were permitted to publish websites, email addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers
• Candidate asks why different standards now apply
LONDON, 11 June 2026 – James Sherwin-Smith, the first Member Nominated Candidate to stand for election to the Board of Nationwide Building Society in more than twenty years, has asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate changes made by Nationwide to his Election Address after discovering that previous Member Nominated Candidates were allowed to publish extensive contact information in Society voting materials.
[↩️ Mobile users may want to rotate to landscape viewing, or click images to see full size: Society redactions, my alternative and my original Election Address.] As voting papers begin arriving with Nationwide Members, I believe it is important to explain a dispute that has arisen between myself and Nationwide regarding my Election Address and […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Member Candidate says Nationwide blocked warning on Quick Vote days before AGM ballots issued • Candidate requested permission to tell Members not to use Quick Vote if they wished to support his election • Request refused despite Board decision to recommend Members vote against him • Website address and QR code removed […]
Public Statement – Saturday 30th May 2026 I’m grateful to Jasper Jolly for the article published this past Friday surrounding this year’s Board election process: Nationwide customer seeking election to board hits out at lender for ‘unfair’ treatment (The Guardian). One issue raised in the article is particularly important. Nationwide has refused requests to amend […]
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Nationwide Building Society £44,078,500 after identifying serious weaknesses in the society’s anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls (see also reports from Guardian, BBC). The regulator’s Final Notice published on 11 December 2025 states that between October 2016 and July 2021 Nationwide’s financial crime controls were not sufficiently effective, […]
Following the announcement to my professional network on LinkedIn regarding next week’s oral hearing, which linked to the text provided by the FCA, one commentator asked me this: “Why do you need access to the full list (lots of personal data), rather than having Nationwide post out your election comms to the members directly?“ Question […]
The FCA have agreed I can share the following information: An oral hearing will convene on the 26 February 2025 at 11am at 12 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN. The hearing will be in-person only and will last approximately 90mins. This hearing is to determine an application to obtain a copy of the register of […]