Nationwide’s poor voter turnout shows the feeling isn’t mutual (The Times)
The UK’s largest building society has a 4% response at its AGM, raising questions about engagement with its 16.4m members
quick vote
Executive Pay at Nationwide: When a Member Vote Isn’t Really a Vote
Why the building society’s remuneration vote is advisory, dominated by the Quick Vote, and supported by just 4% of members. At last year’s AGM, the increased package for the CEO of up to £7m was branded by one member as an “obscenity”, as reported at the time in The Guardian. Private Eye noticed at the […]
Anger as Nationwide refuses members a binding vote on boss’s 43% pay hike (The Guardian)
Kalyeena Makortoff, writing in The Guardian today, has highlighted Nationwide’s blatant double standard when it comes to executive pay. Nationwide is arguing that its executives should be paid in a comparable way to executives at large UK banks, but as Nationwide is a building society, members should not be granted a binding vote on the […]
Nationwide AGM 2025: the illusion of governance and the futility of membership
With 17 million Nationwide building society members, the majority of whom are presumed to be eligible to vote (i.e. more than some sovereign countries), the “modern” mutual’s 2025 AGM should be a leading example of democracy and corporate governance in action. Instead the largest building society in the world exhibits contempt for its members by […]
My Election Address and the Quick Vote
[Updated 29 March 2026] I have the opportunity to include an Election Address of no more than 500 words in support of my candidacy under Rule 22 of Nationwide’s memorandum and rules (see: Process to nominate and elect a Director of Nationwide). The Society Secretary has therefore asked me to deliver this to him at […]