Half-year profits have soared by 83% to £606m at Swindon-based Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, as it continued to win business from high street banks.
The results for the six months to September 30 show it opened a new current every 50 seconds, as a result growing its share of the current account market to 6.6%. 
It also said a customer switched their current account to Nationwide every four minutes, positioning it as a real alternative to the banks. The society, which has around 15m customers, also now accounts for more than 20% of the growth in ISA balances.
The society employs 17,000 people across its Swindon head office, admin centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline and its branches.
Chief executive Graham Beale said: “The first six months of this financial year reflect the growing strength of the society and our ability to deliver better service than our banking peers.
“Consistent with our mutual heritage, we offer an attractive range of products designed to be transparent, fair and good value. This is reinforced by a culture which is focused entirely on the needs of our membership and is in contrast to the traditional shareholder model of the banks.
“We have developed new products, invested in technologies which give our members greater choice in the way they manage their financial affairs, and have rewarded loyal members with some market-leading product offers.
“Alongside this, we have delivered a strong financial performance and improved our capital position. As a result, our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio is the highest in our peer group, which underlines our position as a safe and secure financial services provider for our members.”
