Nationwide to overtake Lloyds to have UK's biggest branch network

(Alliance News) - Nationwide Building Society will overtake Lloyds Banking Group PLC to have the biggest branch network in the UK next month, as its chief executive officer said the "tide is turning" with in-person banking regaining popularity.

The Swindon, England-based building society expects its chain of 696 branches will soon be the largest as it also announced plans to hand out a new GBP100 bonus to members in June.

The change will come as a result of Lloyds kicking off a new tranche of closures across its brands later this month.

Once Lloyds completes the 95 closures, which also includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland sites, the group will have 610 branches in total by March next year.

Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide's chief executive, said the building society was finding its branches to be increasingly popular with customers.

"So I suppose, in some regards, I'm not surprised that there's a lot of our competitors thinking very carefully about strategy," she said.

"We see huge success in our branch network and continue to see it, so perhaps the tide is turning and we will certainly continue to invest in our branches."

People opening current accounts with Nationwide increased by 20% through its branches in the past year, it said.

The building society has pledged to keep its 605 Nationwide branches and 91 Virgin Money sites open until at least 2030.

"We don't have any immediate plans to open any new branches but we will always keep that under review," Crosbie said.

"The one thing we're doing is extending opening hours in a lot of our branches and we're seeing demand for Saturdays and for longer hours.

"What we are finding is that more and more people really value face-to-face, human contact… particularly for areas like fraud, bereavement and power of attorney."

Meanwhile, Nationwide announced its latest "Fairer Share" payment, the fourth since the profit-sharing initiative began, with around 4.4 million members eligible for GBP100 in June.

It said around GBP1.5 billion will have been returned to members since the scheme began in 2023, and it aims to make the payments every year depending on the group's financial performance.

Nationwide is a mutual organisation, meaning it is owned by members rather than shareholders.

The group's latest financial results revealed lower profits compared with the year before, following the takeover of Virgin Money.

The building society made a pre-tax profit of GBP1.49 billion for the year to the end of March, down from the GBP2.3 billion it made last year.

Nationwide said the previous year's earnings had been bolstered by a one-off gain from the acquisition of Virgin Money, which it is currently integrating into the group.

The Virgin Money brand is set to be phased out and its customers will be able to transition to Nationwide, while the first rebranding of branches is expected to come in 2028.

Lloyds shares fell 1.7% to 98.18 pence each on Thursday morning in London.

By Anna Wise, Press Association Business Reporter

Press Association: Finance

source: PA

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