Nationwide Building Society has revealed a drop in its annual profits after taking over Virgin Money and as it announced plans to hand out around £440 million to its members next month.
The building society made a pre-tax profit of £1.49 billion for the year to the end of March, down from the £2.3 billion it made last year.
Nationwide said last year’s earnings had been bolstered by a one-off gain from the acquisition of Virgin Money, which it is currently integrating into the group.
The Virgin Money brand is set to be phased out and its customers will be able to transition to Nationwide, while the first rebranding of branches is expected to come in 2028.
The lower earnings figure also takes into account the latest “Fairer Share” payment, the fourth since the profit-sharing initiative began, with around 4.4 million members eligible for £100 in June.
Nationwide said around £1.5 billion will have been returned to members since the scheme began in 2023, and it aims to make the payments every year depending on the group’s financial performance.
The latest results revealed that net mortgage lending fell to £10.3 billion from £15.9 billion the prior year, although remained market leading, according to the group.
Nationwide said March 2025, which was in the previous financial year, saw a rush of home buyers locking in deals ahead of changes to stamp duty relief from April.
Mortgage rates increased sharply in March this year and hundreds of deals were taken off the market following the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Nationwide said it had to move mortgage rates higher “by necessity” as a result of market swap rates, which are used to price mortgages, going up.
Muir Matheson, Nationwide’s chief finance officer, said: “I would say though that we haven’t used that as an opportunity for profiteering or anything like that.
“We always try to give the best possible rates in that context to our members.”
A strong season for Isas and around one million new personal current account openings helped lift total customer deposits by £10.1 billion in the latest year.
Student current account openings doubled compared to the year before with Nationwide taking 43% of the entire market, having incentivised students with perks like cashback and takeaway vouchers.
This article was written by Anna Wise from The Evening Standard and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.