Profits soar at Yorkshire Building Society
YORKSHIRE Building Society saw a strong first six months of 2014, increasing profits and creating new jobs.
The UK’s second largest building society boosted statutory pre-tax profits to £117.1m, up 71%, and increased core operating profit by 30% to £107.5m.
The firm also highlighted that in its 150th anniversary year, it has created almost 200 new jobs and established a major new charity campaign in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The society increased gross lending by 50% to £3.7bn. Total mortgage balances grew to £30.8bn, up from £29.5bn at December, with 94% of mortgages funded by savings balances and reserves (97% in December).
Chris Pilling, Yorkshire Building Society group’s chief executive, said: “These exceptional results reflect our ongoing success as a business which proudly puts mutual values at its core.
“Our 150th anniversary has been a terrific opportunity for everyone associated with the group – colleagues and customers alike – to reflect on how we have maintained our fundamental purpose at the same time as growing as an organisation.
“Achieving good levels of profit allows us to continue to invest in the future of the group and make our offer to customers even stronger, for example ensuring a smooth transition to comply with the new Mortgage Market Review (MMR) rules with fully trained advisers available across our branch network and via our telephone contact centre.”
Earlier this year, YBS was landed with a £1.4m fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for financial promotions failures. The FCA fined both YBS and Credit Suisse International (CSI) for failing to ensure financial promotions for CSI’s Cliquet Product were clear, fair and not misleading.
Today, YBS said: “We fully accept the decision made by the FCA in relation to the sale of the affected Structured Deposit accounts. We have apologised to our customers as, on this occasion, we have fallen short of our own high standards. We have agreed with the FCA a process under which our customers, if affected, will be given the option to exit their account and receive an appropriate rate of interest, or to retain their account until maturity.
“We are committed to doing all we can to put this right as soon as possible and ensure a fair outcome for our customers. An additional amount has been provided at 30 June 2014 to cover the costs of this remediation and is included in the customer redress and conduct issues provision.”
Looking ahead, Pilling added: “We remain as committed to our members today as the founders of the Society from which we trace our roots 150 years ago. It is a proud heritage and one which we intend to enhance further in the coming years.”
