Leeds Building Society has reported record performance in its mortgage and savings markets for 2012.
New mortgage lending increased by 35% to £1.65 billion, while net residential lending of £737 million was the mutual’s best ever performance.
Savings balances grew by £384 million to £7.74 billion, while assets increased by 5% to a record £10.32 billion.
The Leeds’ pre-tax profit rose by 4% to £52.4 million.
“Leeds Building Society has again delivered a strong set of financial results, continued to grow market share and achieved a record performance in both the mortgage and savings markets,” said chief executive Peter Hill.
“I am also delighted that assets and membership numbers are the highest in our history and capital and reserves are at record levels.
“This increase in new residential lending represents almost double our market share. Furthermore, £497 million of our new lending, almost 30%, has helped 5,700 first-time-buyers onto the housing ladder. Including these mortgages, the average loan-to-value (LTV) on all new lending in 2012 was still only 56% (51% 2011).
“During 2012, we continued to benefit from access to diverse forms of funding, raising £375m in the long-term wholesale market and drawing down £200m from the FLS. This means that the majority of our wholesale funding has more than 1 year to maturity, providing stability for our members. Our wholesale funding ratio reduced to 18.8%, compared to 19.2% a year earlier.”
Residential arrears (1.5% or more of outstanding mortgage balances) reduced from 3.23% in 2011 to 2.89%.
The charge for impairment losses reduced by £6.6 million, to £41.9 million, in 2012. As a result, the total residential and commercial balance sheet provisions are £80 million.
Hill added: “We have again delivered a strong pre-tax profit performance of £52.4 million, which has enabled us to further increase the security of our members’ savings as capital and reserves increased by 7%, to £614 million.
“Only 4.2% of this is in the form of borrowed capital, the lowest ratio of the larger building societies. Our Core Tier 1 capital ratio strengthened to 14.3% from 13.8% in 2011, and total assets rose to £10.32 billion, including liquid assets of £1.75bn, representing 18.5% of total funds.
“The credit ratings agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, both continue to assign long term ‘A’ ratings to the Society citing our resilient profitability, driven by a good interest margin and strong cost control.
“We are well placed to continue our outstanding performance, providing our members with good value for money savings products and helping people to buy their own homes. Leeds Building Society is a profitable, well capitalised business and this gives us the opportunity to achieve our growth aspirations. We intend to increase lending further in 2013 and beyond, which will include more availability of higher LTV loans as we continue to support home ownership, the housing market and the wider economy.”