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

wmb194

boingy said:

I can't decide whether they'll stick to the same criteria as last year or change those criteria and risk another s***storm!
But any business that gives money away is a company that would be better off finding ways to use that money to improve their business.

Mature companies returning surplus capital to its shareholders/'member owners' isn't exactly uncommon. As discussed ad nauseam, the problem in this case is the arbitrary criteria used. At least with normal companies it'll relate to something as uncontroversial as the number of shares you own and you'll know this in advance.

TheBanker

boingy said:

I can't decide whether they'll stick to the same criteria as last year or change those criteria and risk another s***storm!
But any business that gives money away is a company that would be better off finding ways to use that money to improve their business.

Nationwide is not a company in the same way as other banks. It's a mutual society, owned by its members.

The other banks are owned by shareholders, and they use their profit to pay their shareholders a dividend, based on the number of shares held. Nationwide is owned by its members, so it used its profit to pay a 'dividend' to some (but not all) of its shareholders.

I'm not sure what they could have done with the money other than return it to members - they are already paying to keep their branch network open which differentiates them from most of their competitors. They could have spent some money making their mobile app a bit more user friendly (they spent the money, but made it worse!), but ultimatley they are operating like a bank (similar rates offered), generating profit like a bank, but don't have shareholders to benefit from that profit.