Nationwide cuts 600 jobs after Virgin Money takeover

Nationwide building society is axing 600 jobs in the first major round of cuts linked to its controversial takeover of the high street bank Virgin Money.

The move affects Nationwide and Virgin Money staff, whose roles are due to be duplicated once the lenders’ operations are fully merged.

Virgin Money formally became a part of Nationwide this spring after a £2.9bn takeover. The building society has remained tight-lipped about the potential impact for workers since the deal was first announced in 2024.

The cuts are understood to be aimed at back-office staff rather than customer-facing jobs, which include staff working at the nearly 700 branches that the bank has pledged to keep open until at least 2030.

The building society, which employs about 25,000 staff, is now in the process of a weeks-long consultation over the job cuts involving the Nationwide Group staff union (NGSU) and Unite, which represents Virgin Money bank staff.

The group, which is headquartered at a sprawling campus in Swindon, revealed the plans to colleagues last week.

Nationwide said it was “now the UK’s fastest-growing banking provider, continuing to attract more customers and expand into new areas such as business banking. As we integrate Virgin Money, we are making some modest changes in areas where activities overlap. However, we’re committed to retaining the talent and skills of our colleagues wherever we can.”

The building society is understood to be recruiting for about 270 roles, though none are specifically reserved for staff affected by job cuts.

The NSGU’s general secretary, Emma Clay, said the union recognised that the takeover had “inevitably led to a duplication of roles” and said it was “disappointed by the impact they will have on affected colleagues”.

She said: “Our priority is to ensure that consultation is meaningful, that all reasonable alternatives are properly considered, and that every member receives the support and representation they need throughout the process.”

The takeover of Virgin Money was a boon for the building society sector when it was first announced two years ago, marking a rare moment where a member-owned lender – traditionally focused on mortgages and savings – was snapping up a commercial high street bank.

However, the move also proved controversial, with Nationwide having refused to give members a vote on the deal.

Nationwide subsequently used the takeover, and the resulting expansion of its operations, to justify a 43% hike to its chief executive Debbie Crosbie’s maximum pay package last year, allowing her to earn up to £7m if all criteria were met. Members were not given a binding vote on Crosbie’s pay rise at last year’s annual general meeting.

The lender’s annual report, released this month, showed Crosbie was handed £3.2m in bonuses – a combination of payouts for annual and longer-term performance – pushing her overall pay packet to £4.7m for the year to March 2026.

Nationwide has marketed itself as being different from high street banks, even hiring The Wire’s Dominic West for an ad campaign that cast him as a hard-nosed bank manager intent on closing branches, in contrast with Nationwide’s pledge to keep high street locations open. Some of those adverts ended up being banned by the advertising watchdog.

Meanwhile, Nationwide embarked on a series of job cuts in the months leading up to the Virgin Money takeover, amounting to about 800 job losses by early 2024.