Exclusive: Bosses tell staff cuts part of effort to ‘simplify’ operations and ‘remove duplication’ across wider workforce
Nationwide building society is slashing another 275 jobs in the latest round of cuts since bank bosses pushed through a £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money.
Bosses made the announcement to staff on Wednesday, saying it was part of efforts to simplify the bank’s operations and “remove duplication” after absorbing thousands of staff in to the group’s wider workforce.
The cuts are to fall across its retail division, including those working on mortgages, as well as in HR, the chief operating officer’s office, customer operations, communications and finance.
Nationwide said no customer-facing staff would be affected, which appears to be in line with its pledge to keep its 700 branches open until at least 2030.
It follows closely behind the last round of job losses, which were announced in June and affected 600 staff.
Commenting on the latest cuts, a spokesperson for the lender said: “As we integrate Virgin Money into Nationwide, we’re making a limited number of changes. No customer-facing colleagues are at risk and we’re supporting those affected, including through retraining and redeployment.”
The Virgin Money takeover was a boon for the building society sector when it was first announced two years ago, having marked a rare moment when a member-owned lender – traditionally focused on mortgages and savings – was snapping up a commercial high street bank. However, the move also proved controversial, with Nationwide having refused to give members a vote on the deal.
Virgin Money had more than 7,000 staff around the time Nationwide formalised its takeover in late 2024, when the building society had about 18,000 of its own employees, according to its 2025 annual report. Its total workforce now sits at roughly 27,000 today.
Executives had confirmed back in 2024 that there would be “limited workforce changes” to deal with overlapping roles but that they would undergo a formal review of its employee base in the years that followed.
A Nationwide spokesperson stressed that the cuts were not linked to any growing use of AI.
On Thursday, Barclays revealed it was cutting 5,000 jobs as part of cost-saving plans driven by advances in AI, illustrating the real-life fallout linked to the rapidly evolving technology.
Nationwide is to release its half-year financial results on 19 November.
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