Nationwide issues 'important' update and says 'we're not'

Nationwide has told customers "we're not" as it made an "important" announcement this week. The world's largest building society issued an email update on Thursday, October 3, confirming its acquisition of smaller rival Virgin Money.

Part of the email states: "Nationwide is now stronger and able to deliver even greater value for our members, including through our unique Branch Promise, leading customer satisfaction, and competitive savings and lending rates." It further clarified that "Virgin Money branches are now included" in the Branch Promise.

An accompanying article expanded on what this means, explaining: "We're not closing our branches. We know branches are important to our customers. So, everywhere we have a branch, we promise to still be there until at least the start of 2028. There may be circumstances outside of our control that mean we have to close a branch.

"But we will only do this if we don't have another workable option. We know that our customers still value speaking face-to-face, that's why we have the UK's biggest branch network with more branches than any other banking brand."

Nationwide's £2.9bn takeover of rival Virgin Money was approved by a judge on Friday, September 27. Lawyers for the lenders secured the sanctioning of the deal at a specialist companies court in London, and the deal became effective on Tuesday, October 1.

It comes after the building society agreed to take over its rival in March, before after making a successful 220p-a-share firm offer, including a planned 2p-per-share dividend payout. The offer was voted through by shareholders and members.

At the end of a short hearing, Judge Sir Anthony Mann said he was "satisfied" that legal requirements had been complied with. The court heard that 90% of shareholders who voted at a meeting in May had backed the scheme.

The deal has brought together Britain's fifth and sixth largest retail lenders, creating a combined group with around 24.5 million customers, more than 25,000 staff and nearly 700 branches.