Nationwide Building Society is by far the largest U.K. building society and one of the leading providers of retail financial services. It ranks No. 2 by market share in liquid household savings and No. 3 in residential mortgages. As such, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services classifies 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 it if required, and we include one notch of support in the long-term counterparty credit rating. Nationwide's activities are overwhelmingly focused on the U.K. Its loan portfolio is biased toward prime residential mortgages (72% of gross customer lending at Sept. 30, 2009), but also includes
