The world's largest building society, owned by its members rather than shareholders and headquartered in Swindon. It runs graduate programmes in Swindon and Northampton.
Nationwide Building Society is a UK mutual, which means it has no shareholders and is run for the benefit of its members. It offers current accounts, savings, mortgages, credit cards, personal loans and insurance. Wikipedia says it is the largest building society in the world, with over 16 million members in 2024 and more than 24.5 million customers after it completed its acquisition of Virgin Money UK in October 2024. It has 605 branches and has pledged to keep them open until at least 2030.
Nationwide traces its origins to the Co-operative Permanent Building Society, founded in January 1884, and took the Nationwide name in 1970. Its headquarters is in Swindon, at Nationwide House, and Wikipedia reports about 17,680 employees in June 2025. In 1998 its members narrowly rejected a proposal to turn it into a bank. It has pledged to give at least 1% of pre-tax profits to charitable activities.
Nationwide does not publish a separate mission statement in the pages we read, but its own policy page sets out its purpose as "Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society". It says it aims to return extra value to members and lists commitments on protecting customers from fraud and scams, supporting vulnerable customers, flexible working and fair pay for colleagues, community giving and backing the UK's net-zero goal.
Its main products are savings and current accounts, mortgages (including buy-to-let for landlords), credit cards, loans and insurance. In 2021 it announced a partnership with Swindon's Institute of Technology, a college-run training centre at New College's North Star Campus, to deliver apprenticeships in cyber security, software development and DevOps (the teams that build and run software). The Institute aims to educate more than 1,000 people within five years of opening. Nationwide said it would offer insight days at Nationwide House, hackathons (team coding challenges), speakers and employability coaching.
For graduates, Nationwide runs a two-year programme with placements across areas such as technology, finance and risk, product and project management, customer experience, and data and analytics. A third-party listing says the product, transformation, change and delivery stream has three eight-month placements, is based in Swindon or Northampton (at least two days a week in the office), and paid £34,000 plus a yearly bonus. The next intake starts in September 2027 and the listed application deadline was 6 November 2026. The process includes an online assessment and a short video interview, and the graduate page stresses customer service, communication and problem-solving. Benefits listed include 25 days' holiday and two paid volunteering days a year. Apprenticeships began in 2021; check Nationwide's careers site for current vacancies and requirements.
Website: www.nationwide.co.uk
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