Nationwide to dish out £340m to members after record financial results

The mutual lender saw its underlying pre-tax profit surge to £2.2bn in the year to April, from £1.6bn this time last year. Its total underlying income jumped to £4.7bn from £3.9bn the previous year.

The “strong financial performance” has allowed it to launch the Nationwide Fairer Share Payment where eligible members will receive £100 into their current accounts in June.

Nationwide said it was about rewarding members “who have the deepest banking relationships with us”, and it is also introducing the Nationwide Fairer Share Bond with competitive interest rates.

Debbie Crosbie, the chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, said: “We have delivered a strong financial performance by providing banking that is fairer, more rewarding and for the good of society.

“Our strongest financial performance means that we are able to launch the Nationwide Fairer Share Payment, as well as the Nationwide Fairer Share Bond - with a highly competitive interest rate on savings for our existing members.

"We can do this because we’re a building society, not a bank, and our profit is reinvested for our members’ benefit.

“Last year we delivered £1,055m of member financial benefit through better pricing and incentives than the market average and were number one for customer satisfaction in our peer group for the eleventh year running.

“Our strategy is to increase value, offer simply brilliant service, be good for society and to become simpler and more efficient.

"This will ensure Nationwide’s future strength and our ability to support customers and wider society today and for the long term.”

Over the year, Nationwide invested £180m in payments, digital services and branches and extended its “branch promise” to not leave any town or city in which it is based until at least 2024. The society’s branch satisfaction score for the last financial year was 87.1 per cent, the mutual said.

Nationwide also invested £100m to address cost-of-living challenges and launched cashback on supermarket shopping, which benefitted five million customers.

The statement added: “As a member-owned mutual, Nationwide continues to invest in communities and gives at least one per cent of its pre-tax profits to good causes each year. In the last financial year, this amounted to £9.6m.

“The society donated an additional £1m to support debt organisations and charities it works with. It also pledged a further £4m this year in grants for local causes, bringing the total donated to £22m in five years.”

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society with 16m members.

The society is one of the UK’s largest providers for mortgages, savings and current accounts, as well as being a major provider of ISAs , credit cards, personal loans, insurance and investments.