Elect James Sherwin-Smith to represent Nationwide building society members
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8TH JUNE 2026, LONDON — James Sherwin-Smith is the first Member-nominated candidate to stand for election to Nationwide’s Board in more than twenty years and the only candidate standing who has not been selected by the Board.
Last month, Navendu Mishra MP (Labour & Co-operative, Stockport) submitted three important written Parliamentary Questions to HM Treasury about the future governance of Building Societies.
Yesterday, all three received exactly the same response from the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Blake MP…
Not since the keen-eyed Inspector Goole shattered the comfortable illusions of the Edwardian elite has an uninvited guest threatened to sour a private feast’s mood so sharply.
James Sherwin-Smith, the man attempting to clinch a seat at that exclusive dinner party otherwise known as Nationwide’s board could be just […]
My thanks to Samuel Norman and the team at City AM for the coverage on the Business As Usual podcast today. We talked about You can listen to the episode via YouTube below (starts 3m32s) or these podcast platform: Spotify, Apple, Buzzsprout. This post was also shared on Facebook, LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
A spokesperson for Nationwide made a series of statements in today’s article in The Guardian reporting of Nav Mishra MP’s letter sent to the Nationwide chairman, Kevin Parry. I think these statements are worth placing in context – both in terms of the timeline of the pertinent events, and the corresponding data. I will leave […]
Labour MP writes to chair amid concerns building societies are overusing quick votes and failing to add members to boards Kalyeena Makortoff. Banking correspondentSun 24 May 2026 12.00 BST Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/24/nationwide-governance-agm-building-societies-boards Nationwide is under pressure to address “emerging governance issues” across the building society sector, amid concerns bosses are bundling voting options and failing to […]
I am grateful to Mr Navendu (Nav) Mishra MP for writing to both the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Kevin Parry OBE (the Nationwide Building Society chairman), regarding emerging “governance issues within the building society sector”, with Gareth Thomas MP copied, as chair of the APPG for mutuals. These are […]
The UK’s largest building society has a 4% response at its AGM, raising questions about engagement with its 16.4m members
[Originally posted on Linkedin] The Government recently announced that it is “pressing ahead with plans to allow Virtual AGMs“. In my view this would be a backward step, both for the UK, and for Corporate Governance standards. Before you think that the above is simply HMG support for hybrid (combined physical and virtual) meetings, think […]
This Is Money / Mail on Sunday has launched a campaign today to save shareholder meetings, as it is rightly concerned that virtual AGMs limit the ability for owners from holding organisations to account, and may even be illegal. The timing couldn’t be better given Nationwide members still have the opportunity to vote and attend […]
In the last few days, Nationwide members will have received the Chairman’s letter 2025, inviting members to vote and attend this year’s virtual-only Annual General Meeting (AGM). One claim that stood out for me and I wanted to check its veracity: “Since we made the meeting online, we’ve had the highest member attendance for over […]
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 […]
Great to read this article from Patrick Tooher in today’s Daily Mail addressing this important topic (which also kindly quoted me). You can read the article online: Don’t turn up! Big firms bar investors from AGMs Limiting the ability for shareholders and members to hold boards to account via online-only (and thus often highly stage-managed) […]