Merger talks by Nationwide
October 1, 2008
The Nationwide Building Society has been in talks over merging with tow other societies, the Derbyshire and Cheshire Building Societies, which are two of its smaller rivals. Nationwide is the nation’s largest building society, and plans to support the smaller ones through the merger further to approval from authorities.
Many smaller lenders have suffered financially as a result of the global credit crunch. The merger could prove helpful for the smaller societies, but one industry official has said that members of the smaller firms would not be getting any windfall payments as a result of any merger.
The Nationwide has around fourteen million members, whereas the Derbyshire has only half a million and the Cheshire has even fewer than that. Both of the smaller firms have seen their profits plummet over the past year. This stemmed from tighter lending conditions and the havoc that has hit the financial markets over the past year.
Nationwide also merged last year with the Portman, and members of the smaller society did receive payments of between £200 and £1000. However, the current financial climate means that members of the Derbyshire and Cheshire building societies will not receive such payments according to officials.
Written by Peter · Filed Under News Banking
Nationwide recently transferred my old Portman savings account to a Nationwide account. They closed the Portman account on 15 August, with interest added, but didn’t open the new account until 9 September, with exactly the same closing balance. That meant just over 3 weeks with no interest being earned on my money. I calculate that the Nationwide owes me over £300 in lost interest. Nearly 2 weeks after contacting Nationwide’s call centre, I’m still waiting for an explanation and resolution to this. I was promised a letter within 10 days, but it hasn’t yet arrived. I just wonder how many other ex-Portman savers have lost out in a similar way. In the past a transfer of this kind would have been made in person, in the branch, on the same day. The 3-week no-interest gap was made possible because the only option was to post the passbook to Nationwide’s HQ. Convenient for Nationwide, but certainly not for me!