Nationwide issues update over customer service change ahead of July date

Nationwide Building Society has shared an update on rolling out more services to customers. The group is currently the second largest savings and mortgage provider in the UK, with more than 16 million members.

The group often provides extra perks to customers, such as its Fairer Share Payment, where it shares out its profits among members. There have been three rounds of this payment over each of the past three years, with £100 paid out each time.

Last year, more than four million customers received the bonus cash. The building society is also currently offering a £175 switch payment to new and existing customers for moving your current account over to them.

However, the group says current legal restrictions could be holding it back from providing even more services to members. In a recent meeting of the Treasury Committee, Sarah Harrison, chief executive of the Building Societies Association, told the MPs that there should be reform of the current capital requirements for lenders such as Nationwide.

She said: "At the moment, in the UK we have certain requirements in the prudential regulatory space, to require capital to be retained, often as a ratio of capital to assets, for good prudential reasons.

"Normally, the levels are set internationally but in the UK we've added a UK requirement, which is known as the leverage ratio buffer." The idea of these capital requirements is to ensure lenders retain enough capital to keep its services stable should any of its investments or loans fail.

But Ms Harrison said this extra red tape can place unnecessary restrictions on some providers. She warned: "In practice, what that means is some of the obligation on some of our building society members is to hold a lot more capital than is necessarily reflective of their risk portfolio."

The banking expert said that Nationwide had told her that in their case, if the buffer were not in place, they would be able to make available potentially an extra £30billion of capital toward either business or mortgage lending. Nationwide was asked about this £30billion figure and for its views on whether the requirements should be eased.

A spokesperson said: "Leverage ratio reform would help unlock additional lending capacity and support economic growth, without unduly undermining financial strength and stability, hence we welcome the Financial Policy Committee's review. Reducing leverage buffers would support additional lending to both individuals, via mortgage lending, and SMEs, through business loans.

"With the Government's ambition to double the size of the mutuals sector, leverage ratio reform would support the sector's growth potential, where current leverage requirements can often constrain further lending activity for lower risk providers."

The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) is part of the Bank of England and continually assesses the leverage ratio buffer and capital requirements for banks and building societies. In a report from the group published in December 2025, the committee said it was looking at making changes to its capital requirements.

The report said that the Bank would "organise structured evidence gathering sessions" in early 2026 on the topics in the report. The FPC also said it would provide another update on this work in its next Financial Stability Report, which will come out on July 7.

During the committee meeting, Ms Harrison also mentioned the "positive news" that some mutuals are making acquisitions, mentioning Nationwide taking on Virgin Money. Nationwide completed its takeover of Virgin Money back in October 2024.

The mutual paid out a £50 bonus to millions of members as a gesture of thanks after the successful merger. Nationwide said this expansion has helped improve its offering for customers.

The spokesperson said: "Profits can be reinvested in better products and services, meaning we can deliver even greater value back to our customers, through better rates than the market average. We recorded a £2.3billion gain on completion of the acquisition which will help cover integration costs, invest in customer service and deliver more value across the Group."

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