Nationwide's 'Fairer Share' £100 payment for eligible members

boingy

TheBanker said:

Whatever they do now, I don't think they can win. However they distribute the profits next time, there will be a further group of unhappy customers. 

If nothing else I would hope they have learned that they need to reward the majority of members rather than the minority, or not reward anyone at all. But it is only a hope rather than an expectation.

TheBanker

boingy said:

TheBanker said:

Whatever they do now, I don't think they can win. However they distribute the profits next time, there will be a further group of unhappy customers. 

If nothing else I would hope they have learned that they need to reward the majority of members rather than the minority, or not reward anyone at all. But it is only a hope rather than an expectation.

I agree - but if they say next year they're giving everyone £20 because more members are eligible, they'll get complaints from people who previously got £100 and think they've missed out on £80.

If it was me, I would say the current scheme was a one off but they are creating a equitable scheme for next year. This would involve members earning 'points' based on their average monthly balances (for savings and mortgages) and their transactions (for current accounts). At the end of the year, the available profit is divided by the total number of points issued and paid to members. No different to how the Co-op food store dividend schemes work. 

Section62

2010 said:

km1500 said:

ok let's take it to the papers rather than discuss it here

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/10/nationwides-100-payouts-labelled-unfair-by-some-customers

“While we understand that some members who didn’t meet the criteria this time may be disappointed, we hope to be able to make the payment annually, and that even more members become eligible in future.”

They "hope to"!
This should be an annual event, some of the profits should be shared with members as there are no shareholders to pay dividends to.

All profits should be shared with members (other than keeping any necessary reserves).  This is the model of how a mutual building society is supposed to operate.

It shouldn't be an annual event, because if they offered better value products then surplus profits of this kind shouldn't be accrued.

MACKEM99

jim1999 said:

Turns out that Nationwide are trying to close out all of the fairer share complaints by doing a copy-pasted response en-masse.

But, if you contact them to say you're unhappy with that response, they will actually allocate someone to investigate.

They've tried to prevent people from doing so by not providing any contact details on the letter itself.

Not sure it's the best strategy if they want to avoid lots of people going to the FOS, but I suppose that's their prerogative.

Why don't all those that are not happy to flood the CEO with emails.  I know he will not deal with them but will maybe get a flavour of the feeling of members.

MACKEM99

Is it just a coincidence that they announced the £100 around the same time as bringing out the 2 year member bond at a decent rate?

M99

2010

I would say this is just a one off payment because of excess profits and never likely to be repeated.

It comes as Nationwide reported a 40% jump in annual pre-tax profits to £2.2bn, topping its previous record high of £1.6bn a year earlier.
19 May 2023

ForumUser7

MACKEM99 said:

jim1999 said:

Turns out that Nationwide are trying to close out all of the fairer share complaints by doing a copy-pasted response en-masse.

But, if you contact them to say you're unhappy with that response, they will actually allocate someone to investigate.

They've tried to prevent people from doing so by not providing any contact details on the letter itself.

Not sure it's the best strategy if they want to avoid lots of people going to the FOS, but I suppose that's their prerogative.

Why don't all those that are not happy to flood the CEO with emails.  I know he will not deal with them but will maybe get a flavour of the feeling of members.

*she - It’s Debbie Crosbie

MACKEM99

I put she then he perhaps in these woke times I should have said them they.

TheBanker

2010 said:

I would say this is just a one off payment because of excess profits and never likely to be repeated.

It comes as Nationwide reported a 40% jump in annual pre-tax profits to £2.2bn, topping its previous record high of £1.6bn a year earlier.
19 May 2023

I would hope so - it's possible they made excess profits as a result of provisioning for bad debt that hasn't materialised. If they take a prudent approach to provisioning, then excess profit can occur. 

But they seem pretty committed to repeating it next year - see their press statement a few posts above. 

Section62

TheBanker said:

2010 said:

I would say this is just a one off payment because of excess profits and never likely to be repeated.

It comes as Nationwide reported a 40% jump in annual pre-tax profits to £2.2bn, topping its previous record high of £1.6bn a year earlier.
19 May 2023

I would hope so - it's possible they made excess profits as a result of provisioning for bad debt that hasn't materialised. If they take a prudent approach to provisioning, then excess profit can occur. 

But they seem pretty committed to repeating it next year - see their press statement a few posts above. 

Furthermore, in the letter to the Treasury Committee the CEO referred to it as the "inaugral Nationwide Fairer Share" and says "The Board intends this to be an annual distribution to eligible members, provided that it’s not detrimental to the financial strength of the Society".

If this is a Board-level decision, and has been given in the form of evidence to a Commons committee, it carries significantly more weight than a soundbite in a press release.