Nationwide Building Society

Is Nationwide safe?

Yes, and by the numbers it is one of the strongest lenders in Britain. At 31 March 2026 Nationwide's CET1CET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary capital ratio was 19.1%, against a requirement of 12.3%, and its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 169% over the year. Fitch rates it AA-. Eligible deposits are protected by the FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary up to £120,000 per person. We score it 83/100, the highest of the UK lenders we cover. The deductions come from a £44 million FCA fine in December 2025 and from the change that matters most to savers: Virgin Money customers now share Nationwide's FSCS limit.

Nationwide and Virgin Money now share one £120,000 limit

Nationwide bought Virgin Money UK on 1 October 2024. For 18 months the two kept separate banking licences, so a saver with £100,000 at each was fully protected. That ended on 2 April 2026, when a court-approved transfer moved most of Virgin Money's business from Clydesdale Bank PLC into Nationwide Building Society. Virgin Money's own FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary page now says the £120,000 limit "is applied to the total of any deposits you have with Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money".

The FSCS also lists older brands that sit under the same licence: Derbyshire, Cheshire and Dunfermline Building Society, from the 2008 merger with Derbyshire and the 2009 rescue of Dunfermline's business. If you hold more than £120,000 across any of these names, the excess is unlikely to be covered. The FSCS limit rose from £85,000 on 1 December 2025; joint accounts get £240,000.

Why its capital is so high

A building society has no ordinary shareholders, so its capital comes mostly from retained profits, plus £1.3 billion of core capital deferred shares sold to investors. Members' interests and equity reached £21.1 billion in March 2026.

The ratio is flattered a little by the fact that Nationwide's risk weights on prime mortgages are low. Its leverage ratio, which ignores risk weights, is a more modest 5.3%, though still a point above its requirement. The ratio held at 19.1% even after a £3 billion temporary increase in risk-weighted assets that regulators asked for on Virgin Money's mortgage models. Nationwide expects the UK's version of Basel 3.1, which starts in January 2027, to raise the ratio slightly on day one.

Funded by savers, by law

The Building Societies Act limits funding from anything other than member deposits to 50%. Nationwide was at 37.5% in March 2026, a figure that now includes Virgin Money's customers and business deposits. Most of its money comes from millions of small retail balances, which rarely run. Its mortgage book is mainly prime UK residential lending with low arrears, and its cost of risk was 0.11% in 2025/26.

The 2025 FCA fine

On 12 December 2025 the FCA fined Nationwide £44.1 million, after a 30% settlement discount. The regulator found that from October 2016 to July 2021 Nationwide's due diligence on personal current account customers was out of date and its transaction monitoring did not work well. Some customers ran businesses through personal accounts, which Nationwide was not set up to check. In the most serious case, one customer received 24 fraudulent Covid furlough payments worth £27.3 million. HMRC recovered most of it, but about £800,000 is still missing.

The FCA said Nationwide knew its controls were weak but did not fix them in time, and only started a large financial crime overhaul in July 2021. Its annual report says no individual was found personally culpable; the board still cut £192,000 from former senior executives' pay awards (malus) over the fine and other risk matters. We found no other major fine in the last ten years, which is a cleaner record than Lloyds or NatWest.

How to keep your savings safe at Nationwide

1. Add up everything you hold under Nationwide, Virgin Money, Derbyshire, Cheshire and Dunfermline brands. Above £120,000, move the excess to a bank with its own licence.
2. Check the FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary rules on temporary high balances if you are holding a house sale or inheritance: these can be covered up to £1.4 million for six months.
3. Use the Call Checker in Nationwide's app to see whether a call claiming to be from Nationwide is genuine. The society says it protected customers from £225 million of fraud in 2025/26.
4. Keep a card from another bank. Like every large UK lender, Nationwide has had app and online banking outages.

How we scored it

Capital (90) and liquidity (90) are Nationwide's strongest factors: a 19.1% CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary, AA- from Fitch and a deposit base that by law is mostly savers' money. Stability (88) reflects a 2008 crisis with no state capital. Conduct (70) is the weakest, because of the 2025 money-laundering controls fine, and deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (85) is held back by the shared Virgin Money limit. For a high-street rival compare Barclays.