October 2001 – Beware – This society continues to be one of the slowest to reveal to members that it has reduced savings interest rates. The Banking Code, the industry’s own voluntary code of “basic good behaviour”, allows societies to backdate any notification by up to one month and the Scarborough sails very close to the…
Category: News
October 2001 – The management of this society continues to campaign to change the name by progressively reducing the size of the word Holbeck on documentation and advertisements. While the Nationwide has long since dropped the title of building society from its documents.
October 2001 – Did you have a mortgage with the Leeds Permanent Building Society? The Halifax wishes to contact everyone who took out an ‘interest only’ mortgage with the Leeds before October 1989 and repaid it. The Halifax has found that many members may have been accidentally overcharged interest by a small amount and wishes to…
October 2001 – This self styled ‘”consumers’ champion” was brought to book by a genuine consumers’ champion in the form of the Daily Telegraph’s Jessica Gorst-Williams who investigated a case where Nationwide was imposing two mortgage early redemption penalties on a member. The sums involved were £11,441 and £20,389. The newspaper reports that Nationwide insisted it…
September 2001 – The Sunday Telegraph reports that having lured people into opening TESSA-only ISAs paying a rate of 7.25% the Britannia has slashed the rate by an astonishing 1.75% to 5.5%. The reduction is double the amount by which the bank base rate was cut.
August 2001 – A report by Steve lodge in Moneyfacts on society chief executives’ very mutual pay increases shows that the greed continues and most are still helping themselves to bigger and bigger handfuls of members’ money. Brian Davis – Nationwide still gets the “Biggest Snout in the Trough Award” at £768,000. That is over twice…
August 2001 – Brian Davis – Chief Executive to “retire” at year end. Our Comment – By “retiring early” rather than leaving he will receive an immediate pension of £314,000 per year through the generosity of Nationwide members and that will be on top of the salary and pension from his next job/jobs. This annual payment…
August 2001 – The annual report shows that an NHS executive director, Kate Priestley, has joined the board as a non-executive director. Our Comment – It would seem that either a full-time job with the NHS leaves plenty of time to spare or turning up at society boardroom meetings is a very occasional affair. Now we…
July 2001 – From the AGM – In the board’s continuing fight against members’ rights, it has decided to outlaw members’ resolutions without any change to the rule book. This is said to be the latest legal interpretation of what members’ are not allowed to do. This comes in response to attempts to make societies more…
June 2001 – This small society will be the next one to disappear, to be taken over by the Derbyshire this year.