Customers of Nationwide Building Society will be waking up to a nice surprise today after as the bank pays £340 million in profits out.
You see, the company made a record £2.2 billion profit this year, and – subject to the financial strength of the company – they want to keep on distributing that money out to customers.
Not bad, if you’re in line for a bit of that distributed cash.
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The society has 16.3 million members around the world - not just in the UK - so there are set to be a lot of smiles on faces.
If you’re in line for something, you’ll already know about it, with members who are eligible having been informed back on 19 May.
The payments are going to be around £100, obviously slightly different dependent on whether you’re using the British pound or not.
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As part of a scheme they’re calling ‘Fairer Share’ – which is what the payments will be made under – Nationwide is also offering a Fairer Share Bond that will pay an interest rate of 4.75 percent.
The Nationwide chief executive Debbie Crosbie said at the time: “The fact that we’re building society, not a bank, means our profit is used for the benefit of our members.
“That’s why we have introduced ‘Fairer Share’, which will see us return even more value back to our members.”
So, anyone who has a current account, mortgage, or savings account with Nationwide is regarded as a member because the company operates under a cooperative model.
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Those who will be eligible for the pay-out this time will be those who have a current account, as well as either a savings account or a mortgage with Nationwide.
Eligible customers can expect to see the money between 13 and 30 June.
This year saw record £1.6 billion profits for the company, which is the UK’s second largest mortgage lender.
They claim that they have given loans to one in every seven first-time buyers last year, which helped them to achieve those record profit figures.
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This all comes off the back of increase mortgage demands, as well as inflated house prices and higher interest rates, which were the highest in 15 years.
After seven consecutive months of falling house prices, Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardner said in May that there were ‘tentative signs of recovery’ after an April increase of 0.5 percent in house prices.
At the start of last month, he said: “While annual house price growth remained negative in April at minus 2.7 per cent, there were tentative signs of a recovery, with prices rising by 0.5 per cent during the month (after taking account of seasonal effects).
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“Recent Bank of England data suggests that housing market activity remained subdued in the opening months of 2023, with the number of mortgages approved for house purchase in February nearly 40 per cent below the level prevailing a year ago, and around a third lower than pre-pandemic levels.
“However, in recent months industry data on mortgage applications point to signs of a pick-up."
Nationwide also said that the average UK house price for April was £260,441.
Tom Wood