Meet Nick

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Nick, Senior Credit Manager

My background is in the City, where I’d worked for a variety of different institutions including a fixed-income hedge fund, a Japanese principal finance group and in the securitisation team of a European investment bank.

I reached a point where I wanted to leave the City but continue working in finance. There are very few credible institutions based outside of London and, of those, Nationwide is the clear leader. The culture and ethos, however, is very different from the city and much more aligned with my preferences.

The benefits of being mutual can be felt right across the business. The people here are very capable but without the abrasiveness you can find in City firms, which makes for a much better working environment. And my overall quality of life is substantially better now than it was before.

My previous experience on the buy-side was not in a Treasury department but there are similarities with the way other investors work. Here there are opportunities to get involved with both the assets and liabilities and it is interesting to see how an organisation such as Nationwide funds itself. Alongside the regular tasks there are always requests for more information and analysis, often from the Bank of England or the FSA. Never having been that close to regulatory requirements, it has been surprising to see what is asked for and how frequent the dialogue is between us and them.

Even with understandable budget pressures, Nationwide realises that to get the best from its staff it needs to invest in training. Although I have only been here for a short time I have already attended a number of courses and started a well-structured management training programme, which is a big difference to most other places I have worked.

Nationwide has clearly had, relative to its peers, a good credit crunch. Much of that success is down to Treasury. It is well regarded by other parts of the business and is an important and visible function. There are lots of opportunities here for bright, numerate, analytical people who can solve problems and communicate difficult ideas and concepts. In fact, there are few places offering this level of work outside of London and almost none with a comparable reputation and market-leading presence.