NATIONWIDE NEARLY DOUBLES CEO DEBBIE CROSBIE'S PAY TO £4.7M

Nationwide Building Society has increased chief executive Debbie Crosbie's total pay to £4.7m for the year to March 2026, representing an 88% rise on the near-£2.5m she received the previous year. Crosbie received £3.2m in bonuses, comprising both annual and longer-term performance payouts, up from £1.1m the year before. Her base salary of £1.2m was also increased by a further 2.9% in April. The figures appeared in the mutual's annual report, published on Monday.

Nationwide overhauled its executive bonus scheme ahead of the pay rise, increasing Crosbie's maximum possible package by 43% to allow earnings of up to £7m if all performance criteria were met. The board said the increase was justified because Crosbie now leads a significantly larger organisation following Nationwide's £2.9bn acquisition of Virgin Money. The building society's wider workforce of 26,890 eligible staff will receive an average pay rise of 3.8% from 1 July. Nationwide said the changes represented "a significant investment in our people."

Nationwide did not offer its members a binding vote on Crosbie's revised pay package at the 2025 annual general meeting, and similarly did not put the Virgin Money acquisition to a member vote. Andrew Speke, interim director of the High Pay Centre thinktank, said Nationwide was paying its chief executive at levels comparable to high-street banks despite operating as a building society. Critics have raised concerns about governance standards at the mutual. Nationwide is owned by its members rather than external shareholders.