Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann (pictured) says Nationwide’s members should be able to vote on the Virgin Money deal
Nationwide’s members should be given the chance to vote on its planned takeover of Virgin Money, a Conservative peer has said.
Baroness Altmann, a former pensions minister, said it ‘would be wise’ of the building society to consult its more than 14m members over the £3billion deal which shocked the City when it was announced last week.
The deal would create Britain’s second-biggest savings and loans group and catapult Nationwide into the top tiers of retail banking with £366billion in assets and nearly 700 branches.
But Altmann said running the deal past members was ‘important’. She said: ‘It would be wise for Nationwide members to be given a say in the takeover of Virgin Money.
‘The whole beauty of a mutual is that it is run in the interests of its members who have voting rights too and giving them the chance to exercise their right in a major transaction seems sensible.’
A member of a major shareholder advisory group, who asked not to be named, said they ‘couldn’t see why there shouldn’t be a member vote’ on the deal.
On Sunday, financial services expert and Lib Dem peer Baroness Bowles said the deal looked good on paper but members should be consulted as it would mean Nationwide was ‘jumping into the big bank league’.
But Nationwide’s management, led by chief executive Debbie Crosbie, has argued any vote would ‘tie the board’s hands’ and restrict its ability to buy a listed bank.
She said the combined group ‘would bring the benefits of fairer banking and mutual ownership to more people in the UK’. The building society is expected to write to members about the deal within weeks.
