Mortgage balances at Leek Building Society also rose by 11 per cent to reach £984m.
The mutual said its mortgage book continued to be “of high quality”, with just 0.16 per cent of accounts in arrears of three months or more. This was a small rise from a proportion of 0.11 per cent at the end of 2022. This represented 14 mortgage accounts.
Leek Building Society said it was “extremely sensitive” to the challenges faced by borrowers in the current economic environment and was assisting customers where needed.
Its net mortgage lending rose from £42m in 2022 to a record £80m in 2023, which the mutual partially attributed to its “excellent product and service proposition”.
The mutual also reported a “relatively low level” of mortgage redemptions for the year, which came to £76m, down from £105m in 2022.
While the mutual said manual underwriting was a “central component” of its lending strategy, it said it recognised the importance of technology and was in the early stages of introducing Iress technology to streamline processes. This will be rolled out in the first half of 2024.
Leek Building Society’s net interest margin (NIM) improved from 1.47 per cent to 1.66 per cent due to the base rate increases.
Its profit before tax came to £6.4m, a 28 per cent rise on the previous year.
‘Excellent financial health’
Andrew Healy (pictured), chief executive of Leek Building Society, said: “While these results highlight our excellent financial health, what is most pleasing is the highly rounded nature of our performance. As a mutual, we don’t of course seek to maximise profits, but it is in the interest of the society’s long-term competitiveness and sustainability that sufficient profits are generated to maintain our financial resilience and to ensure there is ongoing investment in our business.
“Our mortgage and savings growth levels significantly outperformed the market, evidencing the competitiveness of our offerings in challenging times, and we’re hugely proud of the support we’ve provided to our members and colleagues throughout the cost-of-living crisis. We continued to invest in new technology during the year, including our new mortgage platform, completed our branch and head office refurbishment programmes and not only maintained but stepped up even further the high standards we set for ourselves in terms of risk management, customer service and culture.
“The future for our society has never been brighter.”
