Team Size: 53    

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in? 

Aside from the usual big-ticket M&A, litigation and regulatory matters, Nationwide recently launched a novel product called the Nationwide Fairer Share, which was essentially a profit-sharing payment by a building society to certain eligible members who each received £100 to their accounts. Launching this product involved the analysis of a number of legal and regulatory issues, for example, if the building societies act and our own memorandum and rules permitted it, the tax treatment of the payments, director’s duties in considering and approving it, the rules related to financial promotions, the mitigation of fraud risk associated with making payments, etc. It was a fascinating job.
 

What do you see as an opportunity or risk over the next six months? 

I believe that generative artificial intelligence is a key development that we must watch closely. Its visible and hidden use by organisations, the need for policies and controls on that usage, and the philosophical questions its development and adoption raises are all factors we must consider.
 

An example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

In order to improve the speed of contracting, our team, which supports third party contracts and procurement, developed and launched an entirely new approach to contracting with third party suppliers aligned with Nationwide’s simplification strategy. A new contracting portal was built, a suite of new contract precedents were designed and written, which were on average 50% shorter, a broad range of “house view” training materials on key topics were developed, and a video training series was produced and launched. All this work was done in-house, including the building of the portal itself, and was delivered for approximately £3000.
 

What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in in the United Kingdom? 

The politicisation of retail banking driven by the cost-of-living crisis and the media and commentator coverage of it, with interventions in mortgages, savings, account closures and the associated risk of unintended consequences.