Nationwide Building Society

Nationwide's head economist has forecast the base rate may not rise from its historic low of 0.5% until 2012.

HSBC, Barclays and Nationwide are the only British institutions to register in Global Finance's list of the world's 50 safest banks but no UK names appear in the top 10.

The five largest lenders in the UK accounted for 82% of all mortgage lending activity in 2009, according to the CML.

House prices fell for the second consecutive month in August, figures from Nationwide suggest, but the building society says the correction is "not unhealthy".

House price growth finally ground to a halt in July as prices fell 0.5% for the first time in five months.

Consumer champion Which? has written to the FSA claiming Nationwide Building Society could potentially be in breach of consumer regulations.

Consumer confidence has fallen for the second month in a row, regressing to similar levels as seen 12 months ago, according to Nationwide.

Private equity firm JC Flowers has stepped in to help the embattled building society sector by setting up a rescue deal for Kent Reliance.

Nationwide is to stop offering mortgages through its Dunfermline, Cheshire and Derbyshire Building Societies brands, which will refer mortgage customers to Nationwide through in-branch independent financial advisers.

Annual house price growth fell for the second consecutive month to 8.7% in June and is likely to continue to drop as measures announced in the emergency Budget hit finances, Nationwide says.