Financial Conduct Authority

FCA declines investigation into Nationwide election complaint despite confirming Member democracy falls within its remit (Press release)

By James Sherwin-SmithPosted on 29 June 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Candidate seeks clarification from FCA on whether regulator considers Nationwide complied with the Building Societies Act as voting continues 20 June 2026, LONDON — 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 today confirmed that the […]

Speech to the APPG IF&FFS

By James Sherwin-SmithPosted on 16 June 2026

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 […]

Nationwide challenger asks FCA to investigate after Society edited Election Address, departing from previous election practice

By James Sherwin-SmithPosted on 11 June 2026

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.

FCA fines Nationwide £44 million for financial crime failures

By James Sherwin-SmithPosted on 14 December 2025

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, […]