Strong performance at Yorkshire Building Society
YORKSHIRE Building Society saw a strong financial performance in the first six months of 2013 and announced the creation of another 100 news jobs.
The UK’s second largest building society said it demonstrated the benefits of being a trusted financial services provider, seeing pre-tax profits dip slightly to £80.1m in the six months to June 30 from £82.2m previously while gross lending increased to £2.5bn during the period compared to £2.4bn for the same period last year.
The society has also begun a five-year investment programme to enhance its products and services and develop new systems and technology and will take on another 100 staff at its existing Bradford head office and new Leeds city centre operation having already recruited 100 staff this year.
Total mortgage balances grew to £28bn from £27.6bn at the end of December while member savings balances were stable at £26.3bn compared to £26.8bn at the end of last year.
YBS said that group liquidity remains above the regulatory minimum at 13.7% while net interest margin increased to 1.23% from 1.05% a year ago.
Chris Pilling, Yorkshire Building Society chief executive, said: “Our figures for the first six months of 2013 are very pleasing and reflect our consistent, positive financial performance.
“Our fundamental aims as a building society – helping people to save for the future and buy their own home – are unwavering and being so closely rooted in our communities makes us ideally placed to achieve them.
“Net lending has been solid so far this year and we strongly expect this will increase further in the second half of 2013.
“These interim results show that our responsible approach and long-term financial stability has resulted in a strong, consistently well-capitalised mutual playing a major role in the modern UK financial services sector.
“I believe the excellent service the Yorkshire provides members and the trust they place in us demonstrate how we are providing a credible and successful mutual alternative to the big banks.
“Our continued financial strength has allowed us to begin the significant investment programme, which we announced earlier this year, to further improve the quality of service we deliver to our members.
“The new phase in our growth includes the planned opening in the coming months of a major new office in Leeds, which will see up to 1,000 colleagues based in the city centre, as well as investing £11m in our principal Bradford site and £5m invested in our offices in Cheltenham and Peterborough.
“This investment will create modern, flexible environments from which to deliver great value and service to our members and I am delighted that this will allow us to create more than 200 additional jobs, split broadly equally between Bradford and Leeds, by the end of the year.
“These new jobs will cover a variety of roles across the Society and reflect our on-going ability to make a positive impact on our communities as we continue to grow as an organisation.”
