Building society targeted by campaigner

B&B members voted for the building society to be floated

The man who mounted the successful campaign to see Bradford & Bingley shed its mutual status now has the Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, in his sights.

Stephen Major, a plumber from Lisburn, County Antrim was responsible for putting forward an initial conversion resolution to Bradford & Bingley's annual general meeting in 1999.

The success of that resolution led to Monday's final decisive vote in favour of demutualising and paying windfalls to B&B's 2.6m members.

Stephen Major: Targeting Nationwide

Now Mr Major is targeting Nationwide, which has 5.6m members, 681 branches and assets of £64bn.

But he acknowledged that the battle to topple Nationwide may be tougher than the one for Bradford & Bingley.

In July 1998 it fought off a conversion attempt by a narrow margin and over the past three years it has put a series of defences in place against windfall-seeking carpetbaggers.

Tougher rules

In November 1997 it changed its rules to require any new members to sign away any potential windfall gains to charity.

Then in December 1999 it took on board tougher rules about the greatly increased number of signatories - 500 - required to put a resolution to an annual general meeting or call a special general meeting.

It is also continuing to benefit from a rule which gives building societies a three year 'breathing space' after a failed conversion attempt during which no conversion resolutions can be accepted.

On Tuesday, Mr Major said: "I'm trying to get together the 500 signatures required to put a resolution to an annual general meeting or call for a special general meeting.

"With the Bradford & Bingley I only needed to get 50 signatures so things are getting more difficult. I've got 70 signatures so far and I may go to an online carpetbagger website such as carpetbagger.com to seek more signatures."

At the moment Mr Major is planning to put three resolutions to Nationwide members.

The first would call for the society to convert and pay windfalls.

The second would allow members who have joined since November 1997 to benefit from any windfalls and not have to hand them over to charity.

The third would call for up to 20% of the Nationwide's shares in any flotation to be given to charity.

Mr Major said he had intended to put the resolutions to the Nationwide's AGM in summer 2001.

But a Nationwide spokeswoman said: "Our understanding of the rules is that the 'breathing space' lasts up to and includes our AGM next year."

Mr Major said: "If that is the case then I will consider calling instead for a Special General Meeting as soon as the deadline runs out."

A Nationwide spokeswoman said: "We have fought conversion attempts in the past and we are quite prepared to fight them again. We are confident that our members appreciate the benefits of staying mutual."