However, the mutual grew its mortgage book by £15m, rising to £536m from £521m in 2017.
Total profit slightly increased to £3.3m from £3.1m, while total regulatory capital rose to £37m from £34m in the previous year.
This year saw the introduction of its later life range, a collection of mortgage products specifically designed for borrowers aged 50 and over.
The society has also expanded its branch network with the opening of two additional premises in the existing branch towns of Ipswich and Woodbridge.
Throughout the year the board has appointed Fiona Ryder as non-executive director, Trevor Slater as finance director, and Ian Brighton who was promoted internally to operations director.
Highly competitive market
Alan Harris, Ipswich BS chairman, said that UK’s forthcoming exit from the European Union continues to dominate the economic landscape, creating a highly competitive mortgage market.
He added: “In response to this, we have continued to develop and offer a varied range of innovative and accessible products designed in the best interest of our members.
“While we anticipate wider economic changes, we are confident that through our business model and the additional business controls we have in place that the society will remain secure and largely unaffected during these uncertain times.
“Our mutual model enables us to put our members at the heart of everything we do, therefore a key strategic objective is to ensure we have knowledgeable, highly skilled and engaged staff across the society, to deliver a great experience.”
He added that the new introductions to the board would be valuable and support the mutual’s commitment to helping members achieve their long-term financial goals.
“This year we made several developments to our broker proposition, clearly defining how we can help serve their mortgage clients and we are delighted to see that our excellent broker satisfaction rating has improved further as a result,” he concluded.
