Nationwide abandons plans to enter business banking market

Nationwide abandons plans to enter business banking market amid coronavirus outbreak and record low interest rates

Nationwide has abandoned plans to enter the business banking market amid the coronavirus outbreak and record low interest rates of 0.1 per cent. 

The building society will return £50m it was awarded from the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) fund, which was set up to cultivate competition after the Royal Bank of Scotland’s financial-crisis bailout. 

Nationwide said the pandemic had made it ‘commercially unviable’ to set up the division, and the move will cost it £70m. 

It said it would shift all staff who had been working on the projects to other areas of the business. 

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