Working with Nationwide

Nationwide and our suppliers must demonstrate to our customers that we are working together responsibly and efficiently to minimise risk across our supply chain. In addition, we need to ensure that we operate in a green, inclusive and ethical manner, aligned to our Mutual Good Commitments.

We created our Third Party Code of Practice (PDF, 290KB opens in a new window) to support our commitment to responsible business practices. This sets out the environmental and social standards we expect our suppliers to uphold.

What we buy and who we buy it from matters to us. We’re committed to continually building a greener, more inclusive, and more ethical supply chain. We expect our third parties to support us in achieving this.

Internally, we’ve established a Procurement for Mutual Good programme to drive best practice in sustainable procurement. We champion sustainability considerations to key colleagues through our Responsible Purchasing Principles and Responsible Purchasing Training.

We use the supplier sustainability ratings tool EcoVadis (opens in a new window) to monitor third party supplier performance. We monitor across environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement themes. EcoVadis provides an evidence-based assessment of a supplier’s sustainability policies, actions and results. The questions asked are dependent on company size, sector and location. Supporting documentation is required to demonstrate that every policy, action or result is in place.

The output of the questionnaire is summarised in a scorecard, which highlights a supplier’s strengths and improvement areas. Suppliers can share their scorecard and sustainability metrics with all participating customers, of which there are over 1000 globally. Useful resources and guidance are also available on the EcoVadis platform, so suppliers can access support to implement their improvement areas, promoting continuous improvement in sustainability management. There is also a medal system which helps suppliers promote their stronger sustainability performance.

When suppliers apply to provide services to Nationwide, they are asked to comply with our Supplier Policies. The policies provide an overview of what we expect from our suppliers, in order to address the key areas of risk that Nationwide faces.

The relevant requirements are shared with prospective suppliers during the tender process and align to our contractual agreements. Nationwide conducts regular control tests, to check adherence to the expectations outlined in the policies.

We are a member of the Financial Services Qualification System (FSQS) provided by a company called Hellios Information Ltd.

Suppliers bidding for new business, or extending existing relationships with us, are required to complete the FSQS questionnaire to support their submission.

FSQS works on the principle of a community. Financial institutions who are members of FSQS work together to agree a standard set of questions, which can be used to collect and maintain information on a supplier’s policies and controls. Suppliers complete the questions online and this information, but not the specifics of the Nationwide product or service, will then be made available to other financial institutions who are members of the FSQS community.

Suppliers providing services to more than one financial institution will only need to provide their information once in the FSQS portal, rather than separately to each individual organisation. Where possible, we will use existing FSQS data already provided by the supplier in the system. Suppliers must review their FSQS information each year, to maintain accurate information in the system.