* Lender abandons some member benefit targets
* Books 101 mln pound charge for expected credit losses
* Will focus on capital and liquidity
(Adds detail)
By Lawrence White and Iain Withers
LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Britain's Nationwide Building
Society's annual profit nearly halved, it said on
Friday as it warned of rising loan losses due to the coronavirus
pandemic and abandoned some of its member benefit targets.
The bellwether mortgage lender booked a 101 million pound
($124.6 million) hit from expected credit losses and will focus
for now on maintaining capital reserves after profit for the
year to April 4 fell 44% to 466 million pounds.
Nationwide said profit had been under pressure before the
pandemic, owing to margin erosion from tough competition in the
mortgage market, but the outbreak had caused it to ditch some
annual targets.
Among these is its goal of delivering more than 400 million
pounds in financial benefits to customers through better pricing
on the likes of savings deposits, adding that paying
significantly better rates to savers has become unsustainable
after the central bank cut the base rate to 0.1%.
"In the last 10 years we have built our capital strength
significantly and we will use our financial strength to support
our members through the difficult times ahead," said Chief
Executive Joe Garner.
Unlike the big shareholder-owned banks that are its main
rivals, Nationwide - as a member-owned society - is not under
pressure to deliver ever greater returns to shareholders.
Nationwide reported a core capital buffer of 31.9%, down
slightly from 32.2% the previous year but still ahead of most
major rivals.
($1 = 0.8106 pounds)
(Reporting by Lawrence White and Iain Withers
Editing by David Goodman)