Dear Nationwide: Don't go changing to try and please us

THE City joke goes like this. You can be absolutely certain what a bank with spare capital will do next.

- Simon English

The only question is: up which wall. Nationwide Building Society is not like that. It is an institution for the ages, a force for good in a world not overburdened with them.

It doesn't chuck our money about willy-nilly. It is a steward of it. Since 1884 it has been true to its roots. Its mission is to make it possible for ordinary folk to build up savings, to get a house they can afford and to keep them in it, whatever the economic weather. Attempts to turn it into just another shareholder-owned bank were resisted. Members rallied around management to say to the schemers: get stuffed.

Its mere existence is an affront to the big banks, especially its former building society rivals such as Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley, Abbey National and the rest, who had one thing in common at least.