Nationwide looks to Ireland for new venture
August 19, 2008
The UK’s biggest mortgage lender, the Nationwide building society are hoping to set up businesses in the Republic of Ireland.
Nationwide are hoping to start next year by offering savings accounts to customers. These accounts will be operated online by post and telephone.
The building society has asked permission from the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Irish equivalent, the IFSRA.
The Nationwide said it was aimed at geographical diversification and said it was a “prudent strategic move”.
A Nationwide spokesman said “We are looking at this stage at early to mid-2009 if all goes to plan”.
He added “But we have yet to make a formal application”.
As the UK’s biggest mortgage lender Nationwide has more than 800 branches and accounts for just over half of all outstanding mortgage lending.
Nationwide has no immediate plans to open a branch in Ireland and it does not intend to offer mortgages to customers there.
The spokesman clarified this by saying “Their accounts will be deposit accounts, and therefore they will not be voting members of the society”.
A main advantage of Nationwide doing business in Ireland is that it would give it a business in the eurozone.
This would then make it able to access some of the funds that the European Central Bank has been making available to financial companies in the eurozone. This is to ease the funding problems they have been facing for the past year because of the credit crisis.
The spokesman said “It will help extend our reach for retail savings and also ECB funding for banks in the euro area”.
For more information visit www.nationwide.co.uk.
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