Chris Bose’s Post

On a day of political drama, I was pleased to have the chance to underline Nationwide Building Society’s unwavering commitment to branches. Whether it be cost of living, fraud or the need to chat about finances, branches matter and we’re pleased to keep them open.

Great to join friends and colleagues at Building Societies Association conference in Manchester. Good conversations on how building societies are: 🏡 helping more people into a home of their own. 💷 building a savings buffer for financial resilience. 🏛️ keeping branches on the high street. Great to also work with Nationwide Building Society, Building Societies Association and Frontier Economics on a conversation about how Open Finance could impact mutuals and the design choices facing policymakers. More here: https://lnkd.in/e6N5A2ec

UK building societies are a home grown success story. Latest Building Societies Association data shows: 📈They provided 70,333 first time buyer mortgages 📈They account for 26% of mortgage lending 📈They account for 38% of bank and building society branches ⬆️ from 17% ten years ago. To grow this role we need a level playing field with the banks. That’s why it’s great to see this thoughtful piece by Tulip Siddiq and Joe Fortune on how Labour would double the size of the mutuals and cooperative sector. Nationwide Building Society is committed to working with all parties to promote the role of mutuals.

This is a helpful guide to how The Labour Party thinks about financial services and where it sees the need for reform. A few quick thoughts: 👉 There is a welcome commitment to mutuals and coops and their role in inclusive growth. 👉 Getting regulators to report to Parliament on how they’ve considered the needs of mutuals can help level the playing field with banks. 👉 The recognition that fraud is a cross sector problem and solutions must involve tech and telcos is welcome. 👉 Good to see the sensible position on expanding open banking. As the report says, this needs to be economically sustainable and with consumer protections. There’s much to welcome here.