An online petition demanding a vote on Nationwide’s deal to buy Virgin Money has surged past 1,000 signatures.
The building society, which is owned by its 16m customers, plans to bolt on the lender to create Britain’s second biggest savings and loans group. Nationwide insists that City takeover rules preclude the mutual from giving its members a vote on the £2.9billion deal.
But campaigners say buying the bank is risky and will weaken Nationwide’s strong balance sheet. It is also unclear what is in it for members, they add.
‘Nationwide is trying to keep discussion to a minimum, but why are they so afraid of a vote?’ said petition organiser Mikael Armstrong. ‘Their approach seems to be ‘trust us’ – it’s an odd way to run a mutual.’
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Armstrong has handed in the change.org petition to the society’s headquarters in Swindon – with the 500 signatures Nationwide’s rules say are needed to call a special members’ meeting to discuss the deal.
Nationwide maintains that any member ballot would be ‘advisory’ and ‘non-binding’.
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