Strong franchise in residential mortgages and retail savings. Assets dominated by strongly-performing prime residential mortgages. Sound funding and liquidity profiles. High systemic importance in the U.K. Pressure on earnings from margins and impairment losses. Concentrated exposure to the leveraged U.K. household sector. The ratings on U.K.-based Nationwide Building Society reflect its position as the largest U.K. building society and one of the leading providers of domestic retail financial services. It ranks third by market share in both retail saving deposits and residential mortgages. As such, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services regards Nationwide as a highly systemically important institution in the U.K. We consider that it is unlikely to require extraordinary external support, but believe that the U.K. government would provide
