June 2025 – It emerged last week that Nationwide was preparing to hand Dame Debbie the chief exec at Nationwide a generous new pay package that could earn her a maximum pay-out of nearly £7m.
As expected the main beneficiaries of the Virgin money takeover are the directors of Nationwide and the shareholders of Virgin Money. Some of Nationwide members were thrown a ‘thank you’ crumb in the form of £50 for not kicking up a fuss and shutting up those that did.
James Sherwin-Smith who has launched a campaign to join the board to provide a voice for members. said “The society is being led towards becoming a bank in everything it does.“It’s like Nationwide is saying we’ve made the society far bigger by buying a bank [Virgin Money], and now because it’s bigger, we have to pay our people even more,”
Luke Hildyard, head of the High Pay Centre, says it is “hypocritical” for Nationwide to set pay like a bank while also promoting itself as an alternative to profit maximising lenders.
Baroness Sharon Bowles, a Nationwide member, says: “I am unhappy about it because I’d like to see that they were giving more back to their members. If they want to wear the community bank label in some way, then they should be a bit more like their customers.
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Nationwide owned by the directors, run by the directors for the benefit of the directors.