January 2022 – Nationwide Building Society has taken the lead for mortgage rate rises on more than half of its mortgages in response to the base rate rise, with some products going up by three times the 0.15 per cent bank rate increase. Nationwide has increased rates on 238 mortgages with rises of between 0.05…

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July 2021 – Manchester Building Society has finally won its case against Grant Thornton after pursing the firm through the lower court and the court of appeal.  However damages awarded, amounting to £13.4m, are just over a third of the claim made by the society. The case related to audit services provided by Grant Thornton…

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April 2021 – A Government consultation sets out a package of measures because of concerns about the credibility of directors’ reporting and the statutory audit.  The review is aimed at improving the UK’s audit, corporate reporting and corporate governance systems. It includes views expressed in responses to initial consultations on recommendations made by the Independent…

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April 2021 – A strategic review (yet another one) carried out by Whitecap Consultants, a strategy consultation company, in conjunction with the BSA and others, endeavoured to obtain the views and understanding of the meaning of mutuality from the directors of all building societies.  This presented a difficult challenge for the building society directors all…

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March 2021 – It’s AGM time again at many building societies and as usual their annual reports show that directors have been awarding themselves large amounts of members’ money despite the hardships suffered by so many due to the Covid pandemic.  Their savings interest rates are close to zero and savers receive peanuts but life…

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October 2020 – A Nationwide Building Society announcement in 2019 stated – “Our Branch Promise – Here today, here tomorrow. That’s our promise to every town and city with a Nationwide branch on its high street. So, if we’re still a part of your community on March 18th 2019, we’ll stay part of your community until…

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