In 2008 we opened over 5,000 savings accounts every day and in November 2008, moneysupermarket.com found that, when asked, more people would choose us as a safe haven for their money. Why?
Because we’re different
And that’s because, unlike the banks we don’t have shareholders. We have members, borrowers and savers, whose interests are our only concern. And over the years, our time-honoured virtues of prudence, common sense and fairness have offered safety and security to millions. Of course, years ago there used to be more building societies like us. But that changed when many of them became banks instead. They had their reasons, but as a result, some of today’s consumers may not even know who they’re with. A bank or a building society?
The good news is, we stayed a building society
We’ve steadfastly remained true to our building society roots and values. Open, honest, fair and trustworthy: values, which spring from our mutual status and shape our way of doing business. Put simply, we’re here to look after your money and put your needs first. That’s our only priority.
Solid. Stable. Dependable.
Now, it’s our building society values that are standing us in such good stead. Suddenly the old-fashioned idea of a building society seems the most fashionable idea on the high street. Words like solid, stable and dependable are just the sort of qualities people are looking for.
The facts speak for themselves:
- We’re the world’s largest building society, with over 14 million customers.
- Our total assets amount to around £200bn. That adds up to more than all the other building societies put together.
- We estimate that in the first half of this financial year (2008-09) we attracted approximately 34% of the UK savings market.
- In the last year, we opened nearly 2 million new savings accounts or 5,000 every day.
- Today more than 10 million UK savers trust us with their money.
The fact is many people do recognise our difference, and trust us to look after their financial needs in the right way.
“Honest. Open. Trustworthy.” Those really were the words people used to describe us in a survey carried out by the research company Hall and Partners in November 2008. You can feel at ease with Nationwide.