Monday, 16 July 2012

Comment #8: -- Nationwide Shares


Oh, Nationwide -- I am disappointed...

They’ve compiled these rules in anticipation of further banking legislation changes, to be voted on at this year’s AGM.

What they would do:
 
- Introduce more debt, and destabilise the company, by classifying said debt as Core Tier 1 Capital, alongside Retained Profit
- Negate their status as a Building Society. PIBS are actually shares, after all.
- Push account holders one notch further down the hierarchy – shareholders get paid returns in preference to account-holders
- Exacerbate growth. This is the only reason they plan to issue them – to grow the business faster.

Growth is the bane of sustainability, because it necessitates increased economic nutrition, year on year on year, which makes the entity more and more precarious.
Businesses are not good at shrinking when times get lean!
And i want Nationwide to carry on existing, through thick and thin, thank you very much!
Others have fallen, in the not too distant past [cough: Northern Rock] because of wild debt/growth activities.

I expect there will be members of society, older and more experienced than me, who will tell me that this is not news, and that there really is no such thing as a Building Society any more (what Nationwide claims to be), but as an idealistic kinda guy, i at least want a more building society-ish building society... please.

P.S. I have already voted against “approval of the amendments”

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