Over 600, 000 voters gave Nationwide’s board their backing in yesterday’s AGM,  of the £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money, including the board’s re-election and directors’ pay packages receiving approvals of about 95  per cent or more. Nationwide’s CEO Debbie Crosbie’s maximum long-term bonus to £3.4mn.  Yesterday’s meeting which took place online was open to Nationwide’s 16 million members, as customers who have a current or savings account or a mortgage who owns the building society rather than shareholders. The Virgin Money takeover which will be the largest UK bank merger since the financial crisis, is set to make Nationwide the second-biggest provider of Mortgages and saving accounts, and will give it a foothold in business banking. In the last financial year Crosbie took home £3.5mn, which included  £1.7mn in compensation for a bonus she forfeited when she left rival lender TSB.

Nationwide said “It was meeting its legal and regulatory obligations and was unaware of any occasion where accounts were closed purely because of someone’s political comments or opinions”.