Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Nationwide Building Society
BANKING CODE
STANDARDS BOARD
MYSTERY SHOPPING
EXERCISE ON
BASIC BANK
ACCOUNTS
I am writing in response to your letter of 24
April, regarding the Committee's current inquiry into financial
inclusion. I apologise for the fact that my reply will reach you
slightly later than you had asked.
As you know, Nationwide is proud of its record
of promoting transparency, honesty and fairness across the financial
services industry. As a mutual we are owned by and run for the
benefit of our members and aim to stand up for the interests of
all consumers. We are the only building society to offer basic
bank account facilities and we take seriously our responsibilities
in this respect. We have responded in detail to the Banking Code
Standards Board following their report on Nationwide and already
made some changes to our processes in response to the issues highlighted
in the report.
However, we believe that releasing the Banking
Code Standards Board reports on some individual banks and building
societies would mean there is no possibility of fair comparison
between our reports and the reports of banks which withhold permission.
We believe we could be damaged commercially if our report were
released and other banks' reports are not and so I regret that
we are not in a position to agree to the information being released
to the Treasury Committee.
May 2006
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