July 2002

Mortgages
July 2002 – A Moneyfacts report shows Egg to be the lowest cost source for mortgages for the third consecutive year.  Nationwide, with no shareholders to pay, comes second followed by HSBC and Intelligent Finance.  Bottom of the table of 35 lenders is Abbey National.

Nationwide Building Society
July 2002 – The 2002 election again demonstrated the Nationwide’s commitment to opposing member nominated directors even though the directors told a Parliamentary Committee that they were in favour of them.  Despite this over 25% of voters want member-nominated directors on the board.  That represents the views of over 2.5 million people who want the society to be genuinely mutual.

Nationwide Building Society
July 2002 – Secret society?  There are no details in the annual report of member resolutions that were rejected by the board or the reasons for their rejection.

Our Comment – The board’s lawyers waved a magic wand and suddenly all member resolutions have become illegal without any change to the rules but the words that they uttered in this magic spell have been kept secret.  Nationwide publicity says they are “open, honest and fair”!