LONDON (Reuters) - Nationwide, the customer-owned lender that on Monday absorbed two smaller, struggling building societies, has not received any approaches from other troubled lenders, its chief executive said.

"We have not had any other approaches, and we're not in talks with anybody either, so these are the only two transactions we've been involved with," Nationwide Chief Executive Graham Beale told reporters on a conference call.

Beale also said the mergers had not been initiated by the Financial Services Authority in an effort to preserve market stability.

Earlier, Nationwide said it had agreed to merge with the Derbyshire and Cheshire Building societies after both suffered bad debt-induced losses in the first half of 2008.

"The FSA have been aware of the dialogue and we needed their support in terms of approving the structure of the transaction, but really that has been the extent of their involvement," he said.

The Nationwide CEO said some jobs would be lost as the lender rationalised head-office functions, but said the impact would be limited.

"The expectation is that the job losses are going to be relatively modest and contained," he said.

The Derbyshire and the Cheshire currently have 470 and 356 head office staff respectively.