THE boss of East Lancashire's building society has welcomed the vote against conversion to a bank by members of Britain's biggest.

Neil Shoesmith, the recently appointed chief executive of the Nelson based Marsden society, said the vote against windfall payments was good news for the movement in general.

"It is a very interesting result, particularly given the numbers of people who have joined Nationwide purely for a cash payout," said Mr Shoesmith.

"The Nationwide has demonstrated the benefits of mutuality and shown that its members are better off as

The building society movement is now hoping the vote against conversion at the Nationwide will see a cooling off in 'conversion fever'.

The Marsden was forced to raise its minimum opening balance for membership accounts after a deluge of people applied to join in the hope of gaining cash or shares windfalls.

Although the numbers of people applying to be members has died down Mr Shoesmith said it was continuing to be a problem for societies, including the Marsden.

"As well as the disruption caused to existing members, societies like the Nationwide have had to spend millions on the voting process.

"We didn't want to raise the opening balance because we are there to serve the local community."

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