Nationwide chief Debbie Crosbie still won’t say how much she has paid Dominic West for those ridiculous TV ads, where he plays a bad banking boss goon, the cost cutting chief of Any Bank plc.
The ads are part of the biggest rebrand of the society in 40 years, or even perhaps since this stalwart of the financial scene first began its noble work in 1884.
If you and I think it mockable – I do – Crosbie makes the point that there are millions of potential younger members who don’t know what mutuality means.
To them, the gap between the nation’s biggest building society and any big bank is hard to discern. Hence the need to make the point clear with a hammer rather than a paint brush.
“We believe we are holding on to the things that really matter, while doing all we can to attract the younger demographic,” she says. “We are saying, save with us, get into the habit of saving with us and we will do as much as we can to help you get on the housing ladder.”
Fair enough. We and Dominic West’s agent can turn the ads off I suppose.
Otherwise, the society is in rude health, almost as if this mutuality business works.
Half year profits jumped from £980 million to £1.3 billion, which would look like profiteering were it sending the extra to shareholders.
Since it doesn’t have any, the many millions of members should see the benefits in terms of better savings and mortgage deals which in turn puts pressure on Barclays, Lloyds et al, to follow suit or lose market share.
Crosbie sounds sincere when she says that the mutual model is critical to the society’s future.
“While I am around it will not be changing” she tells me.
Ok, we’ll forgive them Dominic West, as long as they really are what they need to be. A permanent two fingers to the big banks, a constant reminder that there are other ways to arrange the world than the City would have you believe.
