Nationwide Building Society

The stable outlook reflects our view that Nationwide will continue to deliver resilient profitability and maintain a robust balance sheet, despite the challenging economic environment and a competitive mortgage market in the U.K. We expect the group's strong base of bail-in-able and other capital instruments will continue to bolster this solid performance, further supporting our 'A+' issuer credit rating. We could lower our rating if Nationwide were unable to sustain recent performance improvements, likely precipitated by stronger-than-expected competition, weakening cost control, or deterioration in its risk appetite and asset quality. An upgrade is unlikely in the next 24 months. We could consider an upgrade in the next two to three years if Nationwide meaningfully expanded and diversified its franchise while

...Nationwide Building Society's strong capital position, together with its additional loss-absorbing capital (ALAC) buffer, drives our rating. At year-end April 2023, Nationwide's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio was 14.1%. S&P Global Ratings forecasts capital generation and retention will outstrip risk-weighted asset growth in the coming two years (see "Key Metrics") on the back of strong earnings and muted lending growth. Thus, we expect the RAC ratio to move toward 14.5%-15.0% by the end of the same period, providing further support to the rating. Alongside this going concern capital strength, Nationwide's ALAC buffer is an important support to our rating. Our measure of the group's bail-in-able capital exceeded 6% of S&P Global Ratings' risk-weighted assets on April 4, 2023, and we expect this to...

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